Using LEFT JOIN instead of a equi-JOIN

[Ryan Rogers]

I have a SQL statement in some code I'm trying to get my head around.. I havent used SQL that much so I assume this is a newbie question: Why would someone use LEFT JOIN if they can simply construct the statement with equi-JOIN? The first statement uses left joins and the 2nd is my reconstruction using equi-JOINs.. so far they produce the same results (however it could be I dont have the right kind of test data) So to summarize my questions: Why do it using LEFT JOINS which I personally find harder to read over the equi-JOIN, 2nd Do they acutally produce the same result everytime??

1st (LEFT JOIN)
-------------------------------------------------------------
SELECT action.action,
summary.gatekeepercl,
branch.branch
FROM summary
LEFT JOIN action ON summary.action=action.id
LEFT JOIN branch ON summary.branch=branch.id
WHERE summary.gatekeepercl IN (506100,506101)
2nd (equi-JOIN)
---------------------------------------------------------------

SELECT action.action,
summary.gatekeepercl,
branch.branch
FROM summary, action, branch
WHERE summary.action=action.id
AND summary.branch=branch.id
AND summary.gatekeepercl IN (506100,506101)