I am trying to display all project from tbl1 regardless if there is no record in tbl2.

I have been reading about the different types of JOINS

INNER - corisponding record in both tables
Left-record only needs to exist it tbl1
right-record only needs to exist in tbl2
outer-will display all records from either tbl1 or tbl2 regardless if there is a corrisponding record in the other table.

If I have this right, then why would I not is the follow statement not working?

SELECT * FROM tbl_project LEFT JOIN tbl_project_details ON tbl_project.project_id = tbl_project_details.project_id

The result I am getting is that it only displays the record if there is a record set in table 2.

If we start with baby steps, have i understood the joins properly?

Drop the "LEFT" and just use a "JOIN"

Many coworkers tend to find this visual explanation of the joins useful:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/databa...JOINS_orig.jpg


Just to extends a bit further what you told us:
INNER JOIN: returns rows that are matched in both tables
OUTER JOIN: returns rows that are matched in 1 or both table. The LEFT or RIGHT keywords refer to the A and B in the schema above.
an LEFT OUTER JOIN means that every rows from table A will be returned, with records from table B if some match. But records from table B might not be returned, where all records from table A will be.

And to follow the pic above, an LEFT/RIGHT JOIN and an LEFT/RIGHT OUTER JOIN are the same.