join with the on supplied later - sql

I have a query in the following format
select
*
from
Table1 t1
inner join Table2 t2
inner join Table3 t3 on t2.ID = t3.ID
on t3.ID = t1.ID
What I do know:
Not providing the last on condition results in an error.
Additionally changing the first join condition from on t2.ID = t3.ID to on t1.ID = t2.ID results in an error that t1.ID could not be bound.
Obviously the above examples are arbitrary and may not actually produce a practically useful result. However, an explanation of what providing the on later is actually doing would be great.
Thanks
EDIT
I'm not trying to change the question to something that works but to understand what MSSQL is doing when I provide it.

You can use the format you specified (presuming the correct table aliases), if you use parenthesis.
Select ... -- never use Select *
From (Table1 As T1
Join Table2 As T2
On T2.ID = T1.ID)
Join Table3 As T3
On T3.ID = T1.ID
However, with equi-joins (inner joins) it really makes no difference and it is easier to read if you do not use parenthesis. However, this format is very useful with outer joins. Take the following two examples:
Example 1
Select ...
From Table1 As T1
Left Join Table2 As T2
On T2.T1_ID = T1.ID
Join Table3 As T3
On T3.T2_ID = T2.ID
Example 2
Select ...
From Table1 As T1
Left Join (Table2 As T2
Join Table3 As T3
On T3.T2_ID = T2.ID)
On T2.T1_ID = T1.ID
Suppose in this situation, that T3.T2_ID is a non-nullable foreign key to Table2. In Example1, the Inner Join to Table3 will effectively filter out rows that would have been null because the given T2.T2_ID does not exist in Table1. However, in the second example, the join between Table2 and Table3 is done before the Left Join to Table1 is processed. Thus, we'll get the same rows from Table1 and Table2 as:
Example 3
Select ...
From Table1 As T1
Left Join Table2 As T2
On T2.T1_ID = T1.ID

Assuming you meant t1 rather than t, then your query:
select
*
from
Table1 t1
inner join Table2 t2
inner join Table3 t3 on t2.ID = t3.ID
on t3.ID = t1.ID
...can be made rather more clear by the addition of the brackets it doesn't really need:
select
*
from
Table1 t1
inner join
(Table2 t2 inner join Table3 t3 on t2.ID = t3.ID) on t3.ID = t1.ID
Effectively, you're explicitly saying "join t2 to t3, then join t1 to that."
Does that help?

First off--you don't define what t is
Table1 is aliased t1
Table2 is aliased t2
Table3 is aliased t3
But there is no plain t.
Second, you are not doing a join of t1 to t2, but of t1 to t3 and then t3 to t2. That will work. If there is a relation between t1 and t2 (t1.ID=t2.ID) then that "on" statement should directly follow the inner join statement for t2:
select
*
from
Table1 t1
inner join Table3 t3 on t1.ID = t3.ID
inner join Table2 t2 on t3.ID = t2.ID
UPDATE (based on your update)
are t1.ID, t2.ID, and t3.ID all the same data type?

Related

Seeking suggestion about Left join

I have two tables t1 & t2. In t1, there are 1641787 records. In t2, there are 33176007 records. I want to take two columns from table2 and keep everything of t1. When I use left join with t1 to t2, I got more records than t1. I would like to get a similar number of records as t1 after joining. Please give me a suggestion. Here is my code:
SELECT t1.*,
t2.City
FROM t1
LEFT JOIN
t2
ON t1.ID = t2.ID;
You can aggregate and choose an arbitrary value:
select t1.*, t2.city
from t1 left join
(select t2.id, any_value(t2.city) as city
from t2
group by t2.id
) t2
on t1.id = t2.id;

How to join these tables safely?

I have a table Table1. My application code reads from Table1 like this:
Select id, table2_id, table3_id from Table1
I would like it to also return values name from tables Table2 and Table3 by changing my query like this:
select t1.id, t1.table2_id, t1.table3_id, t2.name, t3.name
from table1 t1
left outer join table2 t2 on t1.table2_id = t2.id
left outer join table3 t3 on t1.table3_id = t3.id
However, I don't want to change the behavior of the original query, which returns 1 result per row in Table1.
I believe my changes to the query are safe because they t2.id and t3.id are unique columns, so Table2 and Table3 will contain at most 1 record for each Table3 record. If I was to user inner join, this changes would not be safe, because my query would return no results if Table2 or Table3 happen to not contain the expected record.
For this scenario, are my changes safe and correct? Or is it necessary to write some subqueries to join on?
Your query looks safe:
select t1.id, t1.table2_id, t1.table3_id, t2.name, t3.name
from table1 t1 left join
table2 t2
on t1.table2_id = t2.id left join
table3 t3
on t1.table3_id = t3.id;
You can also phrase this using correlated subqueries (or a lateral join):
select t1.*,
(select t2.name from table2 t2 where t1.table2_id = t2.id) as t2_name,
(select t2.name from table3 t3 where t1.table2_id = t3.id) as t3_name,
from table1 t1;
This is even more of a guarantee that there are no duplicates. If there were, the query would return an error.

How do I get the results of one JOIN and THEN feed those into a separate join in T-SQL?

I'm trying to JOIN 2 tables ON a key like
SELECT column1,column2
FROM Table1 t1
INNER JOIN Table2 t2 ON t1.t2id = t2.id
Now, I have a 3rd table that has a Foreign Key with t2's id that I want to join... When I do
LEFT JOIN
Table3 t3 ON t3.t2id = --<-------------- This is where I'm lost
I don't know if I should do ON t3.t2id = t1.t2id OR ON t3.t2id = t2.id
What I need is the list of t2ids which are still in the picture after the first join. However, it seems as though if I specify either of the above, it will just pull ids from the original table before the first join?
To clarify one more time: I'm trying to essentially do a INNER JOIN of Table1 and Table2, get the resulting table, then get the t2ids of those results and feed them into a final join such that the final result contains all of Table3's rows as well as the data from the first join
You said: "final result contains all of Table3's rows as well as the data from the first join".
It means that you need
Table3 LEFT JOIN <previous results>
instead of
<previous results> LEFT JOIN Table3
The easiest way to write it is to use Common-Table Expressions:
WITH
CTE_InnerJoin
AS
(
SELECT column1, column2, t1.t2id
FROM
Table1 t1
INNER JOIN Table2 t2 ON t1.t2id = t2.id
)
SELECT
CTE_InnerJoin.column1
,CTE_InnerJoin.column2
,Table3....
FROM
Table3
LEFT JOIN CTE_InnerJoin ON CTE_InnerJoin.t2id = Table3.t2id
;
It doesn't matter what column you include in the CTE: t1.t2id or t2.id, the values in them are the same, because they are inner-joined together.
JOINs already do exactly what you want. A JOIN isn't always between two tables. Frequently, it's between the results of previous joins.
SELECT column1,column2
FROM Table1 t1
INNER JOIN Table2 t2 ON t1.t2id = t2.id
LEFT JOIN
Table3 t3 ON t3.t2id = t2.id
At the point at which you're writing the final ON clause here, what you're joining is precisely the results of the previous INNER JOIN on the left and the table Table3 on the right. All of t1, t2 and t3 are in scope within the ON clause, but note that t1 and t2 are now both used as aliases into the same source of rows - the previous INNER JOIN.
As a further example, consider the "diamond join":
SELECT
*
FROM
t1
left join
t2
on
t1.a = t2.b
left join
t3
on
t1.c = t3.d
inner join
t4
on
t2.e = t4.f OR
t3.g = t4.h
This is a way of joining two tables (t1 and t4) based on two alternative joins. Note that in the final inner join, what is on the "left" is the result of already joining tables t1, t2 and t3.
Join the table having foreign key with
Try this....
SELECT column1,column2
FROM Table1 t1
INNER JOIN Table2 t2 ON t1.t2id = t2.id
LEFT join Table3 t3 ON t2.id=t3.t2id
Or Like this.
SELECT t12.column1 ,
t12.column2 ,
t3.*
FROM (
--- INNER JOIN of Table1 and Table2, get the resulting table,
SELECT t1.column1 ,
t2.column2 ,
t1.t2id --- or t2.id doesn't matter because its inner join
FROM Table1 t1
INNER JOIN Table2 t2 ON t1.t2id = t2.id
) T12
LEFT JOIN Table3 T3 ON t3.t2id = t1.t2id --- then get the t2ids of those results
--- and feed them into a final join
--- if you want to get all rows from Table3, Change LEFT JOIN Table3 T3 ON t3.t2id = T1.t2id
--- into RIGHT JOIN Table3 T3 ON t3.t2id = T1.t2id
try this
select t3.*, column1, column2
from
table1 t1 inner join table2 t2 on t1.t2id = t2.id
right outer join table3 t3 on t3.t2id = t2.id
equvalent to
select t3.*, column1, column2
from
table1 t1 inner join table2 t2 on t1.t2id = t2.id
right outer join table3 t3 on t3.t2id = t1.t2id
if you want all rows from table 3 and those matching rows from table1 inner joined to table2 then you can use this syntax:
select t3.*,
column1, column2
from table3 t3
left join table2 t2
inner join table1 t1
on t1.t2id = t2.id
on t3.t2id = t2.id

Left Join; Only if there is at least one matching record

I need to join two pairs of tables. If there is an ID in Table1 that can also be found in Table3 I need to join the tables. If there is no matching ID from Table1 in Table3, I need to not join the tables.
Ex.
If there is at least one id in Table1 in Table3; do something that is effectively this:
SELECT *
FROM Table1 AS t1
INNER JOIN Table2 AS t2 ON t1.ID = t2.ID
LEFT JOIN Table3 AS t3 ON t1.ID = t3.ID
LEFT JOIN Table4 AS t4 ON t3.ID = t4.ID
If there are no IDs that match between Table1 and Table3; do something that is effectively this:
SELECT *
FROM Table1 AS t1
INNER JOIN Table2 AS t2 ON t1.ID = t2.ID
Just translating your question into SQL, you can do this:
IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM Table1 T1 INNER JOIN Table3 T3 ON T1.ID=T3.ID)
SELECT *
FROM Table1 AS t1
INNER JOIN Table2 AS t2 ON t1.ID = t2.ID
LEFT JOIN Table3 AS t3 ON t1.ID = t3.ID
LEFT JOIN Table4 AS t4 ON t3.ID = t4.ID
ELSE
SELECT *
FROM Table1 AS t1
INNER JOIN Table2 AS t2 ON t1.ID = t2.ID

Multiple joins in a sql query - which is best option

I want to use a sql query with multiple joins similar to the example below.
SELECT t1.column1, t1.column2, t1.column3
FROM
table1 t1
LEFT JOIN table2 t2 ON (t1.id1 = t2.id)
LEFT JOIN table3 t3 ON (t1.id1 = t3.id)
JOIN table4 t4 ON t1.id2 = t4.id
WHERE
...
Would this give different results than the following query:
SELECT t1.column1, t1.column2, t1.column3
FROM
table1 t1
LEFT JOIN table2 t2 ON (t1.id1 = t2.id)
LEFT JOIN table3 t3 ON (t2.id = t3.id)
JOIN table4 t4 ON t1.id2 = t4.id
WHERE
...
If they are both 'correct' is the second more efficient than the first?
Thanks
The queries are different, so this isn't a performance issue. The difference are these lines:
LEFT JOIN table3 t3 ON (t1.id1 = t3.id)
and
LEFT JOIN table3 t3 ON (t2.id1 = t3.id)
For the first, t3.id needs to only match t1.id. For the second, it needs to match t2.id1, which in turn must also match t1.id. In other words, the second version requires that the id be in both t1 and t2.
This is because of the LEFT JOIN. The queries would be equivalent if they used INNER JOIN.
The second one is more efficient because it will always return the same or less amount of data.
In the first query you are asking for all the records that are both in table1 and table4 + records from table2 if they exists in table1 + records from the table3 if they exists in table1.
In the second query you are asking for all the records that are both in table1 and table4 + records from table2 if they exists in table1 + records from the table3 if they exists BOTH in in table1 and in table2