delete with outer join

Hello,
I'm having trouble figuring out what's going on here. If I try to do a select with an outer join on my table, i get 3 million rows back. If I try to do the delete, it doesn't delete any. Here's the script:
select count(*)
from boscov.dbo.CartonHistory ch
right outer join boscov.dbo.CartonArchive ct
on ch.RecDocID = ct.RecdocID
and ch.DocType = ct.RecDocType
and ch.CartonID = ct.CartonID
and ct.CartonID is null
and ch.DateTimeStamp < '2008100903000583'
/*above returns 3 million +
delete boscov.dbo.CartonHistory
from boscov.dbo.CartonHistory ch
right outer join boscov.dbo.CartonArchive ct
on ch.RecDocID = ct.RecdocID
and ch.DocType = ct.RecDocType
and ch.CartonID = ct.CartonID
and ct.CartonID is null
and ch.DateTimeStamp < '2008100903000583'
/*above doesn't delete any
My goal is to delete the 3 million + and I can't figure out what's wrong with the script. Thanks for any help!
Ben

I tried that with the same results. Any other ideas? Thanks,
Ben

Your query is a little weird.
FROM History RIGHT JOIN Archive ON History.id = Archive.id
WHERE Archive.id IS NULL
So you're looking for rows in the Archive table where the CartonID is null, and any row in the HistoryTable that matches that CartonID (which is a null).
If you want to find rows in Archive that have an id that is not in History, then use a LEFT JOIN like this:
FROM Archive LEFT JOIN History ON Archive.id = History.id
WHERE History.id IS NULL
If you want to find rows in History that have an id that is not in Archive, then again use a LEFT JOIN:
FROM History LEFT JOIN Archive ON History.id = Archive.id
WHERE Archive.id IS NULL

thank you. That was my issue. I was not using the correct join (I forgot how they actually worked). Thanks for reminding me, and for the help. It's working now.