Show Rows That Are Different Between Two Tables - MS Access - sql

Question

I have been working on trying to convert the following SQL-Server code to achieve a similar result in MS Access.
WITH TableA(Col1, Col2, Col3)
AS (SELECT 'Dog',1,1 UNION ALL
SELECT 'Cat',27,86 UNION ALL
SELECT 'Cat',128,92),
TableB(Col1, Col2, Col3)
AS (SELECT 'Dog',1,1 UNION ALL
SELECT 'Cat',27,105 UNION ALL
SELECT 'Lizard',83,NULL)
SELECT CA.*
FROM TableA A
FULL OUTER JOIN TableB B
ON A.Col1 = B.Col1
AND A.Col2 = B.Col2
/*Unpivot the joined rows*/
CROSS APPLY (SELECT 'TableA' AS what, A.* UNION ALL
SELECT 'TableB' AS what, B.*) AS CA
/*Exclude identical rows*/
WHERE EXISTS (SELECT A.*
EXCEPT
SELECT B.*)
/*Discard NULL extended row*/
AND CA.Col1 IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY CA.Col1, CA.Col2
Gives
what Col1 Col2 Col3
------ ------ ----------- -----------
TableA Cat 27 86
TableB Cat 27 105
TableA Cat 128 92
TableB Lizard 83 NULL
So far I have been able to convert get replication of the FULL OUTER JOIN using the following code, but I have been unable to replicate unpivoting the joint rows (CROSS APPLY).
(SELECT *
FROM TableA AA
INNER JOIN TableB BB ON AA.Col1 = BB.Col1
UNION ALL
SELECT *
FROM TableA AA
LEFT JOIN TableB BB ON AA.Col1 = BB.Col1
WHERE BB.[IP Number] IS NULL
UNION ALL
SELECT *
FROM TableA AA
RIGHT JOIN TableB BB ON AA.Col1 = BB.Col1
WHERE AA.Col1 IS NULL
)
I could use some help achieving the same result in a MS-Access query.

Answer 1

From what I can gather, you have two tables that have unique rows. You want to return rows that are present in one table but not the other.
I would suggest aggregation and HAVING for this -- in either database:
SELECT col1, col2, col3
FROM ((SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROM TableA) UNION ALL
(SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROM TableB)
) as ab
GROUP BY col1, col2, col3
HAVING COUNT(*) = 1;
Or alternatively, two NOT EXISTS clauses:
SELECT a.*
FROM TableA as a
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1
FROM TableB as b
WHERE (a.col1 = b.col1 OR a.col1 IS NULL AND b.col1 IS NULL) AND
(a.col2 = b.col2 OR a.col2 IS NULL AND b.col2 IS NULL) AND
(a.col3 = b.col3 OR a.col3 IS NULL AND b.col3 IS NULL)
)
UNION ALL
SELECT b.*
FROM TableB as b
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1
FROM TableA as a
WHERE (a.col1 = b.col1 OR a.col1 IS NULL AND b.col1 IS NULL) AND
(a.col2 = b.col2 OR a.col2 IS NULL AND b.col2 IS NULL) AND
(a.col3 = b.col3 OR a.col3 IS NULL AND b.col3 IS NULL)
);
Here is a db<>fiddle that uses SQL Server, but the syntax should be basically the same in MS Access.