PostgreSQL - Setting null values to missing rows in a join statement - postgresql

Question

SQL newbie here. I'm trying to write a query that generates a scoring table, setting null to a student's grades in a module for which they haven't yet taken their exams (on PostgreSQL).
So I start with tables that look something like this:
student_evaluation:
|student_id| module_id | course_id |grade |
|----------|-----------|-----------|-------|
| 1 | 1 | 1 |3 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 |7 |
| 1 | 2 | 1 |8 |
| 2 | 4 | 2 |9 |
course_module:
| module_id | course_id |
| ---------- | --------- |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 1 |
| 4 | 2 |
In our use case, a course is made up of several modules. Each module has a single exam, but a student who failed his exam may have a couple of retries. The same module may also be present in different courses, but an exam attempt only counts for one instance of the module (ie. student A passed module 1's exam on course 1. If course 2 also has module 1, student A has to retake the same exam for course 2 if he also has access to that course).
So the output should look like this:
student_id
module_id
course_id
grade
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
7
1
2
1
8
1
3
1
null
2
4
2
9
I feel like this should have been a simple task, but I think I have a very flawed understanding of how outer and cross joins work. I have tried stuff like:
SELECT se.student_id, se.module_id, se.course_id, se.grade FROM student_evaluation se
RIGHT OUTER JOIN course_module ON course_module.course_id = se.course_id
AND course_module.module_id = se.module_id
or
SELECT se.student_id, se.module_id, se.course_id, se.grade FROM student_evaluation se
CROSS JOIN course_module WHERE course_module.course_id = se.course_id
Neither worked. These all feel wrong, but I'm lost as to what would be the proper way to go about this.
Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

I think you need both join types: first use a cross join to build a list of all combinations of students and courses, then use an outer join to add the grades.
SELECT sc.student_id,
sc.module_id,
sc.course_id,
se.grade
FROM student_evaluation se
RIGHT JOIN (SELECT s.student_id,
c.module_id,
c.course_id
FROM (SELECT DISTINCT student_id
FROM student_evaluation) AS s
CROSS JOIN course_module AS c) AS sc
USING (course_id));