Unchecking fields inside of Join not working on Outer Joins?

[KaiLarsen]

I was so sure that in past versions, unchecking a field in the Join tool's embedded select would remove those fields regardless of whether I was turning it into an outer join through the union tool or not. I may be a version behind. Regardless, I see the inner join output missing those columns, but the following union picking them up from the left or right unjoin anchors. 

[DavidP · Accepted solution]

Hi @KaiLarsen 

As the left and Right outputs of the join tool are unjoined records, they will always contain all the fields from their respective inputs. The Select functionality in the Join tool will only apply to the joined records.

You would have to add a Select tool to the Left output before the Union tool to remove the fields you don't want in the output.

[KaiLarsen]

Thanks. So I guess my memory is just wrong. What is the use case for deselecting a field from the embedded select tool and actually wanting that field in your left unjoin column, you think?

[cherrington]

I just spent a LONG time trying to confirm that unchecked fields are supposed to come through on the L&R outputs.  I was afraid I had an anomaly in my workflow, and am relieved someone else had the same question.  

Since you asked about the case for wanting the fields in the unjoined results...  

In my workflow, the join tool joins "Left identifier" to "Right identifier". In the matched results, I only want one field relabeled "identifier"

After the join tool, I list the L&R unjoined results with a Union tool.  I want both "Left identifier" and "Right identifier" fields so I can identify which input is missing the record.  

Hope that makes sense!