I have two columns that I'm trying to join, but am getting a bunch of nulls because instead of it saying "SWEATER" in both columns, it says "SWEATER" in one and "SWEAT" in another. I did a FULL OUTER JOIN, and although a lot have matched, there are still a bunch of nulls because of the above issue.
Using Tableau to do the FULL OUTER JOIN on two queries: one query pulls the "number of items sold" while the other pulls the "number of items returned", matching against the item name/item description (which, in a perfect world, would match exactly. But that's my problem, they don't).
SELECT
item_description_1, SUM(quantity_ordered) "units_sold_OCT2019"
FROM
l_dmw_order_report
WHERE
quantity_ordered > 0
AND oms_order_date BETWEEN '2019-10-01' AND '2019-10-31'
GROUP BY item_description_1
HAVING item_description_1 NOT IN ('Freight')
ORDER BY item_description_1
SELECT
item_name, SUM(return_qty) "#_of_returns_OCT2019"
FROM
l_nvr_ec_returns
WHERE
return_created_date BETWEEN '2019-10-01' AND '2019-10-31'
AND return_status NOT IN ('Cancelled', 'cancelled')
GROUP BY item_name
HAVING item_name NOT IN ('')
ORDER BY item_name
[Here's an image of where exactly I'm stuck at, where the values don't match up and I don't know how to proceed in order to match them...][1] [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/B61Gr.png
Here is what i can suggest. l_dmw_order_report.item_description_1 gives you the items sold and you want to match this with l_nvr_ec_returns.item_name.
unfortunately they are not matching.
Step1: check your filter condition (HAVING statement). don't you think you should also keep NOT IN ('Freight') for table with l_nvr_ec_returns
Step2: both tables can have different naming description/items and you can match them by writing CASE statement.
example:
Item_name
--------
SWEATER
JACKET
item_description_1
-------
SWEAT
JACK
Then
SELECT
(case when item_description_1='SWEAT' then 'SWEATER'
when item_description_1='JACK' then 'JACKET'
END) as item_descrption_1, SUM(quantity_ordered) "units_sold_OCT2019"
FROM
l_dmw_order_report
WHERE
quantity_ordered > 0
AND oms_order_date BETWEEN '2019-10-01' AND '2019-10-31'
GROUP BY item_description_1
HAVING item_description_1 NOT IN ('Freight')
ORDER BY item_description_1
try this.