I have a number of code value tables that contain a code and a description with a Long id. I now want to create an entry for an Account Type that references a number of codes, so I have something like this: insert into account_type_standard (account_type_Standard_id, tax_status_id, recipient_id) ( select account_type_standard_seq.nextval, ts.tax_status_id, r.recipient_id from tax_status ts, recipient r where ts.tax_status_code = ? and r.recipient_code = ?) This retrieves the appropriate values from the tax_status and recipient tables if a match is found for their respective codes. Unfortunately, recipient_code is nullable, and therefore the ? substitution value could be null. Of course, the implicit join doesn't return a row, so a row doesn't get inserted into my table. I've tried using NVL on the ? and on the r.recipient_id. I've tried to force an outer join on the r.recipient_code = ? by adding (+), but it's not an explicit join, so Oracle still didn't add another row. Anyone know of a way of doing this? I can obviously modify the statement so that I do the lookup of the recipient_id externally, and have a ? instead of r.recipient_id, and don't select from the recipient table at all, but I'd prefer to do all this in 1 SQL statement.