What SQL operator enables drawing data from multiple tables within a SQL-compliant database?

The operator that enables drawing data from multiple tables within a SQL-compliant database is JOIN. This operator allows you to combine rows from two or more tables based on a related column between them, facilitating complex queries that can extract and analyze data across different datasets.

When using JOINs, you can specify the relationship between the tables, which can include INNER JOIN, LEFT JOIN, RIGHT JOIN, and FULL OUTER JOIN, among others. Each type of JOIN serves a different purpose in how data is retrieved and displayed, depending on the specific needs of your analysis.

In contrast, while UNION can also be used to combine data, it specifically merges the result sets of two or more SELECT statements into a single result set, whereas JOIN combines rows from related tables based on matching criteria. MERGE is not a standard operator for drawing data from multiple tables in SQL; it is often associated with the concept of synchronization or upsert operations in database management. SELECT is the SQL command used to specify the data to retrieve but does not inherently address how to combine data from multiple tables.