The {} bracket notation is an ODBC function call. The ODBC interface will
interpret anything between the brackets and execute it appropriately for the
target data source. These functions exist so that ODBC applications can have
access to a standard set of features and syntax that may not be directly
supported by all data sources.
For SQL Server this is totally redundant since TSQL directly supports the
same outer join syntax.
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David Portas
SQL Server MVP