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Set Operations: UNION, INTERSECT, EXCEPTLocate this document in the navigation structure

Use

A series of options are available for establishing a relationship between results from several results tables and for generating a new results table on the basis of this relationship.

Prerequisites

You can use the demo data for the SQL tutorial. Start the Database Studio as database administrator MONA with the password RED and log on to demo database DEMODB: Logging On to a Database.

Activities

You can use Database Studio to enter and execute SQL statements. More information: Working with SQL Statements: Overview

UNION

The UNION statement enables you to create a union for the individual results tables from several SELECT statements. In the simplest case, you can link together two results tables that have been created from the same base table.

You can also use the UNION statement to combine results tables that have been created from different tables. However, in this case you have to make sure that the data types of the relevant ith output columns are comparable. These data types do not have to be identical, since the maximum length is used, where applicable.

SELECT zip customer_zip FROM hotel.customer WHERE zip > '90000'

SELECT zip hotel_zip FROM hotel.hotel WHERE zip> '90000'

Displaying the zip codes greater than 90000 for each table

Result

CUSTOMER_ZIP

 

HOTEL_ZIP

90018

 

90804

97213

 

90029

95054

 

92262

90018

   

92714

   

SELECT zip FROM hotel.customer WHERE zip > '90000'

  UNION

SELECT zip FROM hotel.hotel WHERE zip > '90000'

Displaying all the zip codes from the customer and hotel tables that are greater than 90000

Result

ZIP

90018

90029

92262

90804

97213

92714

95054

zip codes that occur several times are displayed once only, since the database system implicitly executes a DISTINCT. If you want to display all zip codes by their frequency of occurrence, use UNION ALL.

SELECT hno hno_or_cno, name hotel_or_customer_name, zip FROM hotel.hotel WHERE zip < '30000'

    UNION ALL

SELECT cno, name, zip FROM hotel.customer WHERE zip < '30000'

Displaying all the cities/places in which either a hotel is located or one of the customers lives

Result

HNO_OR_CNO

HOTEL_OR_CUSTOMER_NAME

ZIP

3000

Porter

10580

30

Regency

20037

4300

TOOLware

20019

4400

Jenkins

20903

10

Congress

20005

3400

Griffith

20005

80

Midtown

10019

20

Long Island

11788

70

Empire State

12203

40

Eighth Avenue

10019

INTERSECT

You can use INTERSECT to generate an intersection.

SELECT zip FROM hotel.customer WHERE zip < '30000'

  INTERSECT

SELECT zip FROM hotel.hotel WHERE zip < '30000'

Displaying the zip codes that are used in both tables

Result

ZIP

20005

If you do not additionally specify ALL, an implicit DISTINCT is also executed here.

EXCEPT

You can use EXCEPT to deduct the results from one results table from those of another. The sequence of the SELECT statements is important here.

SELECT zip FROM hotel.hotel WHERE zip < '30000'

  EXCEPT

SELECT zip FROM hotel.customer WHERE zip < '30000'

Displaying only those zip codes from the hotel table that do not exist in the customer table

Result

ZIP

12203

10019

20037

11788

Before the EXCEPT set operation becomes effective, a DISTINCT is implicitly executed.

If you also want to take into consideration the number of rows found in the individual results tables, use <UNION|INTERSECT|EXCEPT> ALL in each case.

More Information

SQL Reference Manual, QUERY Expression (query_expression)

More examples for Data Query