Which type of join is used to retrieve common records from tables?

The type of join used to retrieve common records from tables is the Inner Join. This operation matches rows from two or more tables based on a related column between them. When performing an Inner Join, only the records that have matching values in the specified columns across the involved tables are returned. This makes it particularly useful for queries where you want to see data that exists in both tables, thus filtering out any records that do not have correspondence.

For example, if you have two tables – one for customers and another for orders – an Inner Join on a common field such as customer ID would return only those customers who have made orders, effectively excluding any customers who have not placed orders at all. This behavior of returning only the overlapping records underscores the distinct purpose of an Inner Join in relational database management.