Access SQL: Union select, show both fields - sql

Question

I have this SQL:
SELECT Ph.Account, Ph.Ct FROM Ph
UNION SELECT Rx.Account, Rx.Ct FROM Rx;
Which works fine, but the Ph.Ct and Rx.Ct fields may not always be the same. So I wanted to display both of them, but the query is only showing 1 "Ct" field and not both.
How can I have it show both?
Here's ph:
12685 3
29568 1
38771 2
Here's rx:
10657 1
12685 2
68781 2
79874 1
What's what I want to come out from the query:
Account ph.ct rx.ct
10657 1
12685 3 2
29568 1
38771 2
68781 2
79874 1
A UNION gets the correct data set (about 800 results), but not the right fields. Any JOINs I've tried do not give the right data set (only about 300 results).

Answer 1

What you need is a full outer join. For each value of Account appearing in either table, this will give the corresponding values of Ct for each table if the given value of Account appears and null otherwise.
select Account,Ph.Ct as ph_ct,Rx.Ct as rx_ct
from Ph full outer join Rx on (Ph.Account=Rx.Account);
Edit: Since Access apparently doesn't support full outer joins (for some god awful reason), you can achieve the same effect with the union of a left join with a right join:
select Ph.Account, Ph.Ct as ph_ct, Rx.Ct as rx_ct
from Ph left join Rx on (Ph.Account=Rx.Account)
union
select Rx.Account, Ph.Ct as ph_ct,Rx. Ct as rx_ct
from Ph right join Rx on (Ph.Account=Rx.Account);
which is also equivalent to (the probably faster):
select Ph.Account, Ph.Ct as ph_ct, Rx.Ct as rx_ct
from Ph left join Rx on (Ph.Account=Rx.Account)
where (Rx.Account IS NULL)
union all
select Rx.Account, Ph.Ct as ph_ct, Rx.Ct as rx_ct
from Ph right join Rx on (Ph.Account=Rx.Account);

Answer 2

You cannot have a full outer join in MS Access, so:
SELECT m.Account, Ph.Ct, Rx.Ct FROM
((SELECT Ph.Account FROM Ph
UNION SELECT Rx.Account FROM Rx) As m
LEFT JOIN Ph ON m.Account = Ph.Account)
LEFT JOIN Rx ON m.Account = Rx.Account

Answer 3

I don't think you want a union. You want a join. If you join the fields on Account, you can show the Rx.Ct and Ph.Ct as well.
In a union, it lists all the rows from one table, stacked on top of another table, excluding duplicates. Each row is from a different table.
In a join, each row is a combination of two tables, which means the columns that are not joined can hold different values.
Here you go:
SELECT Ph.Account, Ph.Ct, Rx.Ct FROM Ph INNER JOIN Rx ON Ph.Account=Rx.Account;

Answer 4

Just for future references about UNION Operator:
The UNION operator is used to combine the result-set of two or more SELECT statements.
Notice that each SELECT statement within the UNION must have the same number of columns. The columns must also have similar data types. Also, the columns in each SELECT statement must be in the same order.
Note: The UNION operator selects only distinct values by default. To allow duplicate values, use UNION ALL.
For more info: UNION Operator

Answer 5

You want a join, not a union:
select
coalesce(Ph.Account, Rx.Account) as Account
Ph.Ct,
Rx.Ct
from
Ph
full outer join Rx on
Ph.Account = Rx.Account
You can change inner to the type of join you want. Read more about the different types of joins here.
unions are used when you want to take one set of results and append them to the rowset of another result. joins are used when you want to take one set of results and append them to the columnset of another result.