Representing 'not in' subquery as join - sql

Question

I am trying to convert the following query:
select *
from employees
where emp_id not in (select distinct emp_id from managers);
into a form where I represent the subquery as a join. I tried doing:
select *
from employees a, (select distinct emp_id from managers) b
where a.emp_id!=b.emp_id;
I also tried:
select *
from employees a, (select distinct emp_id from managers) b
where a.emp_id not in b.emp_id;
But it does not give the same result. I have tried the 'INNER JOIN' syntax as well, but to no avail. I have become frustrated with this seemingly simple problem. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Assume employee Data set of
Emp_ID
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Assume Manger data set of
Emp_ID
1
2
3
4
5
8
9
select *
from employees
where emp_id not in (select distinct emp_id from managers);
The above isn't joining tables so no Cartesian product is generated... you just have 7 records you're looking at...
The above would result in 6 and 7 Why? only 6 and 7 from Employee Data isn't in the managers table. 8,9 in managers is ignored as you're only returning data from employee.
select *
from employees a, (select distinct emp_id from managers) b
where a.emp_id!=b.emp_id;
The above didnt' work because a Cartesian product is generated... All of Employee to all of Manager (assuming 7 records in each table 7*7=49)
so instead of just evaluating the employee data like you were in the first query. Now you also evaluate all managers to all employees
so Select * results in
1,1
1,2
1,3
1,4
1,5
1,8
1,9
2,1
2,2...
Less the where clause matches...
so 7*7-7 or 42. and while this may be the answer to the life universe and everything in it, it's not what you wanted.
I also tried:
select *
from employees a, (select distinct emp_id from managers) b
where a.emp_id not in b.emp_id;
Again a Cartesian... All of Employee to ALL OF Managers
So this is why a left join works
SELECT e.*
FROM employees e
LEFT OUTER JOIN managers m
on e.emp_id = m.emp_id
WHERE m.emp_id is null
This says join on ID first... so don't generate a Cartesian but actually join on a value to limit the results. but since it's a LEFT join return EVERYTHING from the LEFT table (employee) and only those that match from manager.
so in our example would be returned as e.emp_Di = m.Emp_ID
1,1
2,2
3,3
4,4
5,5
6,NULL
7,NULL
now the where clause so
6,Null
7,NULL are retained...
older ansii SQL standards for left joins would have been *= in the where clause...
select *
from employees a, managers b
where a.emp_id *= b.emp_id --I never remember if the * is the LEFT so it may be =*
and b.emp_ID is null;
But I find this notation harder to read as the join can get mixed in with the other limiting criteria...

Answer 2

Try this:
select e.*
from employees e
left join managers m on e.emp_id = m.emp_id
where m.emp_id is null
This will join the two tables. Then we discard all rows where we found a matching manager and are left with employees who aren't managers.

Answer 3

Your best bet would probably be a left join:
select
e.*
from employees e
left join managers m on e.emp_id = m.emp_id
where
m.emp_id is null;
The idea here is you're saying that you want to select everything from employees, including anything that matches in the manager table based on emp_id and then filtering out the rows that actually have something in the manager table.

Answer 4

Use Left Outer Join instead
select e.*
from employees e
left outer join managers m
on e.emp_id = m.emp_id
where m.emp_id is null
left outer join will preserve the rows from m table even if they do not have a match i e table based on the emp_id field. The we filter on where m.emp_id is null - give me all the rows from e where there's no matching record in m table.
A bit more on the subject can be found here:
Visual representation of joins
from employees a, (select distinct emp_id from managers) b implies cross join - all posible combinations between tables (and you needed left outer join instead)

Answer 5

The MINUS keyword should do the trick:
SELECT e.* FROM employees e
MINUS
Select m.* FROM managers m
Hope that helps...

Answer 6

select *
from employees
where Not (emp_id in (select distinct emp_id from managers));