What is the primary purpose of the SQL JOIN operation?

The primary purpose of the SQL JOIN operation is to combine rows from multiple tables based on a related column. In relational databases, data is often organized across different tables to maintain structure and reduce redundancy. JOINs facilitate the retrieval of related data by linking tables through a common attribute, allowing for comprehensive queries that provide a full picture of the information that spans multiple tables.

For instance, if you have a "Customers" table and an "Orders" table, you can use a JOIN to access the order history for each customer by connecting them through a common key, such as "CustomerID." This capability is crucial for complex queries where insights are derived from the interaction of multiple data sources.

While summarizing data and analyzing single datasets serve important roles in data handling, they do not represent the primary function of JOIN operations. Moreover, creating new tables from existing data is typically performed using other SQL statements like SELECT INTO or CREATE TABLE along with a SELECT statement. Associations across multiple tables through JOINs are essential for advanced data analysis and report generation, making it a foundational technique in SQL.