MATLAB: Joining one column from a table to another while matching all other columns

addcolumnjoin;MATLABtabletables

hello,
i have two tables a and b
a= Department Name ID
k Joe 12
l Laura 234
m Mike 45
b Tom 23
j Ash 55
b= Department Name ID Gender
l May 222 F
l Laura 234 F
m Gary 45 M
j Ash 55 M 
a=table({['k','l','m','b','j'],['Joe','Laura','Mike','Tom','Ash'],[12,234,45,23,55]},'VariableNames',{'Department','name','ID'});
b=table({['l','l','m','j'],['May','Laura','Gary','Ash'],[222,234,45,55],['F','F','M','M']},'VariableNames',{'Department','name','ID','Gender'});
I want to join b on a when all Departmen, ID and Name match with the resultant only showing these three columns once and adding a fourth coulum that has Gender as follows
ans== Department Name ID Gender
k Joe 12 Nan
l Laura 234 F
m Mike 45 Nan
b Tom 23 Nan
j Ash 55 M
l May 222 Nan
m Gary 45 Nan

Best Answer

(Your code won't produce the tables a and b.)
I believe the outerjoin command does what you want:
a = table({'k','l','m','b','j'}',{'Joe','Laura','Mike','Tom','Ash'}',[12,234,45,23,55]', ...
         'VariableNames',{'Department','name','ID'});
b = table({'l','l','m','j'}',{'May','Laura','Gary','Ash'}',[222,234,45,55]',{'F','F','M','M'}', ...
         'VariableNames',{'Department','name','ID','Gender'});
outerjoin(a,b,'MergeKeys',true)
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