Equivalent of R cbind() function in Oracle? - sql

Question

I am new to sql and struggling to solve this very simple task.
Considering,
with table1 as (select '1' col1 from dual union
select '2' col1 from dual union
select 'NO_PATTERN' col1 from dual union
select 'RANDOM_STUFF' col1 from dual)
select * from table1;
and,
with table2 as (select 'aaa' col2 from dual union
select '4' col2 from dual union
select 'qwewqeq' col2 from dual
union select 'UUUUUU' col2 from dual)
select * from table2;
I want to perform a cbind() between the two columns into a new table which is the "vertical union" of table1.[col1] and table2[col2].
The EXPECTED solution is:
with solution as (select '1' col1, 'aaa' col2 from dual union
select '2' col1, '4' col2 from dual union
select 'NO_PATTERN' col1, 'qwewqeq' col2 from dual union
select 'RANDOM_STUFF' col1, 'UUUUUU' col2 from dual)
select * from solution;
Any idea?

Answer 1

In Oracle you need to explicitly define some value to get ordered data; without that, you could have different results every time you run a query.
With your data, this:
WITH table1 AS
(SELECT 1 rn, '1' col1 FROM DUAL UNION
SELECT 2 rn, '2' col1 FROM DUAL UNION
SELECT 3 rn, 'NO_PATTERN' col1 FROM DUAL UNION
SELECT 4 rn, 'RANDOM_STUFF' col1 FROM DUAL),
table2 AS
(SELECT 1 rn, 'aaa' col2 FROM DUAL UNION
SELECT 2 rn, '4' col2 FROM DUAL UNION
SELECT 3 rn, 'qwewqeq' col2 FROM DUAL UNION
SELECT 4 rn, 'UUUUUU' col2 FROM DUAL)
SELECT col1, col2, t1.rn
from (select row_number() over (order by rn) as rn, col1 from table1 ) t1
inner join
(select row_number() over (order by rn) as rn, col2 from table2 ) t2
on (t1.rn = t2.rn)
gives:
COL1 COL2 RN
------------ ------- ----------
1 aaa 1
2 4 2
NO_PATTERN qwewqeq 3
RANDOM_STUFF UUUUUU 4
Without an explicit ordering, for exampe, this
WITH table1 AS
(SELECT '1' col1 FROM DUAL UNION
SELECT '2' col1 FROM DUAL UNION
SELECT 'NO_PATTERN' col1 FROM DUAL UNION
SELECT 'RANDOM_STUFF' col1 FROM DUAL),
table2 AS
(SELECT 'aaa' col2 FROM DUAL UNION
SELECT '4' col2 FROM DUAL UNION
SELECT 'qwewqeq' col2 FROM DUAL UNION
SELECT 'UUUUUU' col2 FROM DUAL)
SELECT col1, col2, t1.rn
from (select rownum as rn, col1 from table1 ) t1
inner join
(select rownum as rn, col2 from table2 ) t2
on (t1.rn = t2.rn)
gives
COL1 COL2 RN
------------ ------- ----------
1 4 1
2 UUUUUU 2
NO_PATTERN aaa 3
RANDOM_STUFF qwewqeq 4

Answer 2

If you don't want to order them, this would be a simple way to do it -
select *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT 100)) AS SNO into #0 FROM Table 2
select *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT 100)) AS SNO into #1 FROM Table1
select a.*, b.* into #3 from #0 a join #1 b on a.SNO = b.SNO
Got the idea from here -
https://blog.sqlauthority.com/2015/05/05/sql-server-generating-row-number-without-ordering-any-columns/