Matching multiple columns in one join - sql

Question

I have two tables:
Table 1
item_name | assocID_1 | assocID_2 | assocID_3
ball 123 456 789
Table 2
assoc_key assoc_value
123 red
456 white
789 blue
Am I able to create an output of:
ball red white blue
With only one join? I understand I can just join the tables multiple times to easily get this result, but in my actual tables there are much more than 3 columns, and the app I'm using can only support 4 joins per query apparently.
Many thanks for any help.

Answer 1

If you don't care about performance, you can do:
select t1.item_name,
max(case when t2.assoc_key = t1.assocID_1 then t2.assoc_value end),
max(case when t2.assoc_key = t1.assocID_2 then t2.assoc_value end),
max(case when t2.assoc_key = t1.assocID_3 then t2.assoc_value end)
from table1 t1 join
table2 t2
on t2.assoc_key in (t1.assocID_1, t1.assocID_2, t1.assocID_3)
group by t1.item_name;
You can also use subqueries. If we assume that there is only one matching row in table2:
select t1.item_name,
(select t2.assoc_value from table2 t2 where t2.assoc_key = t1.assocID_1),
(select t2.assoc_value from table2 t2 where t2.assoc_key = t1.assocID_2),
(select t2.assoc_value from table2 t2 where t2.assoc_key = t1.assocID_3)
from table1 t1;
If there can be more than one match, you can arbitrarily choose one of them using aggregation functions:
select t1.item_name,
(select max(t2.assoc_value) from table2 t2 where t2.assoc_key = t1.assocID_1),
(select max(t2.assoc_value) from table2 t2 where t2.assoc_key = t1.assocID_2),
(select max(t2.assoc_value) from table2 t2 where t2.assoc_key = t1.assocID_3)
from table1 t1;

Answer 2

I do not think you need a join here. You just need to look up which you can do in the SELECT statement directly. Here is an implementation in SQL Server (In Sample Data preparation code, if you are using version older than SQL Server 2016, please replace the DROP TABLE IF EXISTS with older way of doing the same)
DDL and Test Data:
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS Table1
SELECT item_name = 'ball'
,assocID_1 = 123
,assocID_2 = 456
,assocID_3 = 789
INTO Table1
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS Table2
SELECT assoc_key = 123
,assoc_value = 'red'
INTO Table2
UNION ALL
SELECT assoc_key = 456
,assoc_value = 'white'
UNION ALL
SELECT assoc_key = 789
,assoc_value = 'blue'
SELECT * FROM Table1
SELECT * FROM Table2
1. Brute Force Approach:
SELECT item_name = T1.item_name
,(SELECT TOP 1 assoc_value FROM Table2 WHERE assoc_key = T1.assocID_1)
,(SELECT TOP 1 assoc_value FROM Table2 WHERE assoc_key = T1.assocID_2)
,(SELECT TOP 1 assoc_value FROM Table2 WHERE assoc_key = T1.assocID_3)
FROM Table1 T1
2. Dynamically Building the Query For Ease And Then Executing It. With this approach Number of Columns Would Not Be a Concern:
DECLARE #SQL NVARCHAR(MAX) = 'SELECT item_name = T1.item_name '
SELECT #SQL += '
,(SELECT TOP 1 assoc_value FROM Table2 WHERE assoc_key = T1.'+COLUMN_NAME+')'
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = 'dbo' -- provide your proper schema name here
AND TABLE_NAME = 'Table1'
AND COLUMN_NAME <> 'item_name' -- provide the columns you want to avoid doing lookups
ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION
SET #SQL+='
FROM Table1 T1 '
PRINT #SQL
EXEC sp_executesql #statement=#SQL
3. Combination of UNPIVOT, JOIN and PIVOT
SELECT item_name, [assocID_1], [assocID_2], [assocID_3] -- you can dynamically build the select list like above example if you need
FROM
(
SELECT IQ.item_name, IQ.assocId, T2.assoc_value
FROM (
SELECT UNP.item_name, UNP.assocId, UNP.Value
FROM Table1 T1
UNPIVOT
(
Value FOR assocId IN ([assocId_1], [assocId_2], [assocId_3]) -- you can dynamically build this column list like above example if you need
) UNP
) IQ
INNER JOIN Table2 T2
ON IQ.Value = T2.assoc_key
) OQ
PIVOT
(
MAX(assoc_value)
FOR associd IN ([assocID_1], [assocID_2], [assocID_3]) -- you can dynamically build this column list like above example if you need
) PV

Answer 3

select item_name, decode(ASSOCID_1,(select assocID_1 from t1 ), (select assoc from t2 where assoc_key =aa.assocID_1),null ) ,
decode(ASSOCID_2,(select assocID_2 from t1 ) , (select assoc from t2 where assoc_key =aa.assocID_1),null ),
decode(ASSOCID_3,(select assocID_3 from t1 ), (select assoc from t2 where assoc_key =aa.assocID_1),null ) from t1 aa