joining more than two tables without repeating values - sql

Question

I want to join three tables,
I have three tables user, profession and education where "uid" is primary key for user table and foreign key for other two tables. I want to join these tables to produce result in one single table
user profession education
+------+-------+ +-----+----------+ +-----+---------+
| uid | uName | | uid | profName | | uid | eduName |
+------+-------+ +-----+----------+ +-----+---------+
| 1 | aaa | | 1 | prof1 | | 1 | edu1 |
| 2 | bbb | | 1 | prof2 | | 1 | edu2 |
| 3 | ccc | | 2 | prof1 | | 1 | edu3 |
| | | | 3 | prof3 | | 3 | edu4 |
| | | | 3 | prof2 | | | |
+------+-------+ +-----+----------+ +-----+---------+
Expected output
+------+-------+-----+----------+-----+---------+
| uid | uName | uid | profName | uid | eduName |
+------+-------+-----+----------+-----+---------+
| 1 | aaa | 1 | prof1 | 1 | edu1 |
| null | null | 1 | prof2 | 1 | edu2 |
| null | null |null | null | 1 | edu3 |
| 2 | bbb | 2 | prof1 | null| null |
| 3 | ccc | 3 | prof3 | 3 | edu4 |
| null | null | 3 | prof2 | null| null |
+------+-------+-----+----------+-----+---------+
I tried following query
select u.uid ,u.uName,p.uid , p.profName,e.uid,e.eduName
from user u inner join profession p on u.uid=p.pid
inner join education e on u.uid = e.uid
where u.uid=p.uid
and u.uid=e.uid
and i.uid=1
Which gives me duplicate values
+------+-------+-----+----------+-----+---------+
| uid | uName | uid | profName | uid | eduName |
+------+-------+-----+----------+-----+---------+
| 1 | aaa | 1 | prof1 | 1 | edu1 |
| 1 | aaa | 1 | prof2 | 1 | edu1 |
| 1 | aaa | 1 | prof1 | 1 | edu2 |
| 1 | aaa | 1 | prof2 | 1 | edu2 |
| 1 | aaa | 1 | prof1 | 1 | edu3 |
| 1 | aaa | 1 | prof2 | 1 | edu3 |
+------+-------+-----+----------+-----+---------+
Is there a way to get the output with not repeating the values.
Thanks

Answer 1

Bit of a swine this one.
I agree with #GordonLinoff that ideally this presentation would be done on the client side.
However, if we wish to do it in SQL, then the basic approach is that you have to get the maximum number of rows that will be consumed by each user (based on a count of how many entries they have in each of the professions and educations tables, and then of these counts, the max count).
Once we have the number of rows required for each user, we expand the rows out for each user as necessary using a numbers table (I've included a number generator for the purpose).
Then we join each table on, according to the uid and the row number of the entry in the joined table relative to the row number of the "expanded" rows for each user. Then we select the relevant columns, and that's us done. Pay the nurse on the way out!
WITH
number_table(number) AS
(
SELECT
(ones.n) + (10 * tens.n) + (100 * hundreds.n) AS number
FROM --available range 0 to 999
(VALUES (0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) AS ones(n)
,(VALUES (0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) AS tens(n)
,(VALUES (0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) AS hundreds(n)
)
,users(u_uid, userName) AS
(
SELECT 1, 'aaa'
UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 'bbb'
UNION ALL
SELECT 3, 'ccc'
)
,professions(p_u_uid, profName) AS
(
SELECT 1, 'prof1'
UNION ALL
SELECT 1, 'prof2'
UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 'prof1'
UNION ALL
SELECT 3, 'prof3'
UNION ALL
SELECT 3, 'prof2'
)
,educations(e_u_uid, eduName) AS
(
SELECT 1, 'edu1'
UNION ALL
SELECT 1, 'edu2'
UNION ALL
SELECT 1, 'edu3'
UNION ALL
SELECT 3, 'edu4'
)
,row_counts(uid, row_count) AS
(
SELECT u_uid, COUNT(u_uid) FROM users GROUP BY u_uid
UNION ALL
SELECT p_u_uid, COUNT(p_u_uid) FROM professions GROUP BY p_u_uid
UNION ALL
SELECT e_u_uid, COUNT(e_u_uid) FROM educations GROUP BY e_u_uid
)
,max_counts(uid, max_count) AS
(
SELECT uid, MAX(row_count) FROM row_counts GROUP BY uid
)
SELECT
u_uid
,userName
,p_u_uid
,profName
,e_u_uid
,eduName
FROM
max_counts
INNER JOIN
number_table ON number BETWEEN 1 AND max_count
LEFT JOIN
(
SELECT u_uid, userName, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY u_uid ORDER BY userName) AS user_match
FROM users
) AS users
ON u_uid = uid
AND number = user_match
LEFT JOIN
(
SELECT p_u_uid, profName, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY p_u_uid ORDER BY profName) AS prof_match
FROM professions
) AS professions
ON p_u_uid = uid
AND number = prof_match
LEFT JOIN
(
SELECT e_u_uid, eduName, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY e_u_uid ORDER BY eduName) AS edu_match
FROM educations
) AS educations
ON e_u_uid = uid
AND number = edu_match
ORDER BY
IIF(COALESCE(u_uid, p_u_uid, e_u_uid) IS NULL, 1, 0) ASC --nulls last
,COALESCE(u_uid, p_u_uid, e_u_uid) ASC
,IIF(COALESCE(p_u_uid, e_u_uid) IS NULL, 1, 0) ASC --nulls last
,COALESCE(p_u_uid, e_u_uid) ASC
,IIF(e_u_uid IS NULL, 1, 0) ASC --nulls last
,e_u_uid ASC
And the results:
u_uid userName p_u_uid profName e_u_uid eduName
----------- -------- ----------- -------- ----------- -------
1 aaa 1 prof1 1 edu1
NULL NULL 1 prof2 1 edu2
NULL NULL NULL NULL 1 edu3
2 bbb 2 prof1 NULL NULL
3 ccc 3 prof2 3 edu4
NULL NULL 3 prof3 NULL NULL

Answer 2

Did you try the distinct keyword?
select DISTINCT u.uid ,u.uName,p.uid , p.profName,e.uid,e.eduName
from user u inner join profession p on u.uid=p.pid
inner join education e on u.uid = e.uid
where u.uid=p.uid
and u.uid=e.uid
and i.uid=1