Outer join in subqueries?

Can we do the outer join on subqueries?

The following statement is not returning the results which I am expecting,
am i missing some thing on outer join ??

select a.col1,a.col2
from
tablename1 a, (select col1..... with few set operation like minus and union
and returns one column which has same datatype of a.col1) b
where
a.col1 = b.col1 (+);

hi'
i couldnot your query properly but i tried the query with our emp and dept table
like this
------------
select a.deptno,a.ename from emp a,(select deptno from dept) b where a.deptno(+)=b.deptno;
---------------------
it is running fine and giving the desired result

hi,
i couldnot get your query properly but i tried the query with our emp and dept table
like this
------------
select a.deptno,a.ename from emp a,(select deptno from dept) b where a.deptno(+)=b.deptno;
---------------------
it is running fine and giving the desired result