SQL INNER JOIN vs. NATURAL JOIN: A Detailed Explanation with Movie Rating Example

In this scenario, an INNER JOIN is used instead of a NATURAL JOIN because a NATURAL JOIN would join the tables based on all columns with the same name in both tables, which may not be the desired behavior.

Using an INNER JOIN allows us to explicitly specify the join condition, which in this case is Movie.mID = Rating.mID. This ensures that only the rows with matching movie IDs between the Movie and Rating tables are included in the result.

If a NATURAL JOIN was used, it would automatically join the tables based on all columns with the same name, which could lead to unexpected results if there are other columns with the same name in both tables that are not intended to be part of the join condition.

Therefore, to ensure accurate and explicit join conditions, an INNER JOIN is preferred over a NATURAL JOIN in this scenario.