What is the simplest way to join multiple tables in SQL? - sql

I have been working as a data analyst for about 4 months now and the above is a very real question for me. The most recent way I've been taught to join is with the left join with the following example.
left join table1
on
table2.id = table1.id
left join table2
on
table3.table_id = table2.table_id
left join table4
on
table1.tablekey_id = table4.tablekey_id
Looking for the most efficient way to connect multiple tables to save time, if possible.
Thanks in Advance!

You could certainly use a shorter alias for the table names and table fields.
Example:
Table 1 = alias t1
tablekey_id = tkid
So then it would t1.tkid instead of having to type out table1.tablekey_id.

If it is only two tables of same columns and same datatypes, you can use union concept to join the tables.
You can also join tables like this:
Tables: TableA, TableB
SELECT
column1,
column2,
column3
FROM TableA, TableB
WHERE TableA.id = TableB.id;

Related

Optimizing SQL Query - Joining 4 tables

I am trying to join 4 tables. Currently I've achieved it by doing this.
SELECT columns
FROM tableA
LEFT OUTER JOIN tableB ON tableB.address_id = tableA.address_id
INNER JOIN tableC ON tableC.company_id = tableA.company_id AND tableC.client_id = ?
UNION
SELECT columns
FROM tableA
LEFT OUTER JOIN tableB ON tableB.address_id = tableA.gaddress_id
INNER JOIN tableD ON tableD.company_id = tableA.company_id AND tableD.branch_id = ?
The structure of tableC and tableD is very similar. Let's say that tableC contains data for clients. And tableD contains data for client's branch. tableA are companies and tableB are addresses My goal is to get data from tableA that are joined to table B (All companies that has addresses) and all the data from tableD and also from tableC.
This wroks nice, but I am afraid that is would be very slow.
I think you can trick it like this:
First UNION between C,D and only the join to the rest of the query, it should improve the query significantly :
SELECT columns
FROM TableA
LEFT OUTER JOIN tableB ON tableB.address_id = tableA.address_id
INNER JOIN(SELECT Columns,'1' as ind_where FROM tableC
UNION ALL
SELECT Columns,'2' FROM TableD) joined_Table
ON (joined_Table.company_id = tableA.company_id AND joined_Table.New_Col_ID= ?)
The New_Col_ID -> just select both branch_id and client_id in the same column and alias it as New_Col_ID or what ever
In addition you can index the tables(if not exists yet) :
TableA(address_id,company_id)
TableB(address_id)
TableC(company_id,client_id)
TableD(company_id,branch_id)
Why should that be slow? You select client adresses and branch addresses and show the complete result. That seems straight-forward.
You join on IDs and this should be fast (as there should be indexes available accordingly). You may want to introduce composite indexes on
create index idx_c on tableC(client_id, company_id)
and
create index idx_d on tableD(branch_id, company_id)
However: UNION is a lot of work for the DBMS, because it has to look for and eliminate duplicates. Can there even be any? Otherwise use UNION ALL.
Try CTE so that you don't have to go through TableA and TableB twice for the union.
; WITH TempTable (Column1, Column2, ...)
AS ( SELECT columns
FROM tableA
LEFT OUTER JOIN tableB
ON tableB.address_id = tableA.gaddress_id
)
SELECT Columns
FROM TempTable
INNER JOIN tableC
ON tableC.company_id = tableA.company_id AND tableC.client_id = ?
UNION
SELECT Columns
FROM TempTable
INNER JOIN tableD ON tableD.company_id = tableA.company_id AND tableD.branch_id = ?

How to select records that do not exist in two (or more) tables

I have 3 tables of accounts that all contain the same fields. Table1 contains all accounts while Table2 and Table3 contain subsets of the accounts. I'm trying to select records in Table1 that do no exist in Table2 or Table3.
Let's say the table layout is like this and is the same for all 3 tables:
|AcctNum|Name|State|
I know how to do this if it was just Table1 and Table2, using a left join and Is Null, but the 3rd table is throwing me. Is this possible to do in one query? Can you combine left joins? I should point out I'm using Access 2010.
Yes you can combine left joins and with the odd syntax Access uses the query should look like this:
SELECT T1.AcctNum
FROM (Table1 AS T1 LEFT JOIN Table2 AS T2 ON T1.AcctNum = T2.AcctNum)
LEFT JOIN Table3 AS T3 ON T1.AcctNum = T3.AcctNum
WHERE (((T2.AcctNum) Is Null) AND ((T3.AcctNum) Is Null));
You can use Access to create a view called TableCombined that is a union of both Table2 and Table3.
At that point, you can use your left join and Is Null query and join TableCombined to Table1.
Hope this helps!
You can also do a NOT EXISTS statement which makes sense logically for what you are trying to achieve.
For example:
SELECT ACCTNUM
FROM TABLE1
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT TABLE2.ACCTNUM FROM TABLE2 INNER JOIN TABLE3 WHERE TABLE2.ACCTNUM IS NULL AND TABLE3.ACCTNUM IS NULL)

Join SQL Tables with Unique Data (Not same number of columns!)

How can I join three or four SQL tables that DO NOT have an equal amount of rows while ensuring that there are no duplicates of a primary/foreign key?
Structure:
Table1: id, first_name, last_name, email
Table2: id (independent of id in table 1), name, location, table1_id, table2_id
Table3: id, name, location
I want all of the data from table 1, then all of the data from table 2 corresponding with the table1_id without duplicates.
Kind of tricky for a new guy...
Not sure what do you want to do with Table3.
A LEFT JOIN returns all records from the LEFT table, and the matched records from the right table. If there is no match (from the right side), then the result is NULL.
So per example:
SELECT * FROM Table1 AS t
LEFT JOIN Table2 AS tt
ON t.id = tt.id
The LEFT table refers to the table statement before the LEFT JOIN, and the RIGHT table refers to the table statement after the LEFT JOIN. If you want to add in Table3 as well, use the same logic:
SELECT * FROM Table1 AS t
LEFT JOIN Table2 AS tt
ON t.id = tt.id
LEFT JOIN Table3 AS ttt
ON t.id = ttt.id
Note, that I use alias names for the tables (by using AS), so that I can more easily refer to a specific table. For example, t refers to Table1, tt refers to Table2, and ttt refers to Table3.
Joins are often used in SQL, therefore it is useful to look into: INNER JOIN, RIGHT JOIN, FULL JOIN, and SELF JOIN, as well.
Hope this helps.
Good luck with learning!
You will want to use an LEFT JOIN
SELECT * FROM table1 LEFT JOIN table2 ON Table1.ID = Table2.table1_id

Query from table based on some condition

I have a scenario like this, there are 2 tables table_1 and table_2. Both table have a common column called column_1(no foreign_Key constraints!!). Table_1 can have some extra rows which are not present in table_2(In other words, table_2 is a sub-set of table_1). I want to list all those items which are only present in table_1 but not in table_2.
Kindly help in writing the sql query for the same.
Thanks in advance.
SELECT a.*
FROM table1 a
LEFT JOIN table2 b
on a.column_1 = b.column_1
WHERE b.column_1 IS NULL
if those two tables are not related with each other, better add an index on table1.column_1 and table2.column_1 so that it won't require full table scan (which slows the performance)
select * from table1
inner join table2 on table1.column1=table2.column1
select a.* from table1 a left outer join table2 b on a.col1=b.col1;

Are "from Table1 left join Table2" and "from Table2 right join Table1" interchangeable?

For example, there are two tables:
create table Table1 (id int, Name varchar (10))
create table Table2 (id int, Name varchar (10))
Table1 data as follows:
Id Name
-------------
1 A
2 B
Table2 data as follows:
Id Name
-------------
1 A
2 B
3 C
If I execute both below mentioned SQL statements, both outputs will be the same:
select *
from Table1
left join Table2 on Table1.id = Table2.id
select *
from Table2
right join Table1 on Table1.id = Table2.id
Please explain the difference between left and right join in the above SQL statements.
Select * from Table1 left join Table2 ...
and
Select * from Table2 right join Table1 ...
are indeed completely interchangeable. Try however Table2 left join Table1 (or its identical pair, Table1 right join Table2) to see a difference. This query should give you more rows, since Table2 contains a row with an id which is not present in Table1.
Table from which you are taking data is 'LEFT'.
Table you are joining is 'RIGHT'.
LEFT JOIN: Take all items from left table AND (only) matching items from right table.
RIGHT JOIN: Take all items from right table AND (only) matching items from left table.
So:
Select * from Table1 left join Table2 on Table1.id = Table2.id
gives:
Id Name
-------------
1 A
2 B
but:
Select * from Table1 right join Table2 on Table1.id = Table2.id
gives:
Id Name
-------------
1 A
2 B
3 C
you were right joining table with less rows on table with more rows
AND
again, left joining table with less rows on table with more rows
Try:
If Table1.Rows.Count > Table2.Rows.Count Then
' Left Join
Else
' Right Join
End If
You seem to be asking, "If I can rewrite a RIGHT OUTER JOIN using LEFT OUTER JOIN syntax then why have a RIGHT OUTER JOIN syntax at all?" I think the answer to this question is, because the designers of the language didn't want to place such a restriction on users (and I think they would have been criticized if they did), which would force users to change the order of tables in the FROM clause in some circumstances when merely changing the join type.
select fields
from tableA --left
left join tableB --right
on tableA.key = tableB.key
The table in the from in this example tableA, is on the left side of relation.
tableA <- tableB
[left]------[right]
So if you want to take all rows from the left table (tableA), even if there are no matches in the right table (tableB), you'll use the "left join".
And if you want to take all rows from the right table (tableB), even if there are no matches in the left table (tableA), you will use the right join.
Thus, the following query is equivalent to that used above.
select fields
from tableB
right join tableA on tableB.key = tableA.key
Your two statements are equivalent.
Most people only use LEFT JOIN since it seems more intuitive, and it's universal syntax - I don't think all RDBMS support RIGHT JOIN.
I feel we may require AND condition in where clause of last figure of Outer Excluding JOIN so that we get the desired result of A Union B Minus A Interaction B.
I feel query needs to be updated to
SELECT <select_list>
FROM Table_A A
FULL OUTER JOIN Table_B B
ON A.Key = B.Key
WHERE A.Key IS NULL AND B.Key IS NULL
If we use OR , then we will get all the results of A Union B
select *
from Table1
left join Table2 on Table1.id = Table2.id
In the first query Left join compares left-sided table table1 to right-sided table table2.
In Which all the properties of table1 will be shown, whereas in table2 only those properties will be shown in which condition get true.
select *
from Table2
right join Table1 on Table1.id = Table2.id
In the first query Right join compares right-sided table table1 to left-sided table table2.
In Which all the properties of table1 will be shown, whereas in table2 only those properties will be shown in which condition get true.
Both queries will give the same result because the order of table declaration in query are different like you are declaring table1 and table2 in left and right respectively in first left join query, and also declaring table1 and table2 in right and left respectively in second right join query.
This is the reason why you are getting the same result in both queries. So if you want different result then execute this two queries respectively,
select *
from Table1
left join Table2 on Table1.id = Table2.id
select *
from Table1
right join Table2 on Table1.id = Table2.id
Select * from Table1 t1 Left Join Table2 t2 on t1.id=t2.id
By definition: Left Join selects all columns mentioned with the "select" keyword from Table 1 and the columns from Table 2 which matches the criteria after the "on" keyword.
Similarly,By definition: Right Join selects all columns mentioned with the "select" keyword from Table 2 and the columns from Table 1 which matches the criteria after the "on" keyword.
Referring to your question, id's in both the tables are compared with all the columns needed to be thrown in the output. So, ids 1 and 2 are common in the both the tables and as a result in the result you will have four columns with id and name columns from first and second tables in order.
*select *
from Table1
left join Table2 on Table1.id = Table2.id
The above expression,it takes all the records (rows) from table 1 and columns, with matching id's from table 1 and table 2, from table 2.
select *
from Table2
right join Table1 on Table1.id = Table2.id**
Similarly from the above expression,it takes all the records (rows) from table 1 and columns, with matching id's from table 1 and table 2, from table 2. (remember, this is a right join so all the columns from table2 and not from table1 will be considered).