querying 2 tables with the same spec for the differences - sql

Question

I recently had to solve this problem and find I've needed this info many times in the past so I thought I would post it. Assuming the following table def, how would you write a query to find all differences between the two?
table def:
CREATE TABLE feed_tbl
(
code varchar(15),
name varchar(40),
status char(1),
update char(1)
CONSTRAINT feed_tbl_PK PRIMARY KEY (code)
CREATE TABLE data_tbl
(
code varchar(15),
name varchar(40),
status char(1),
update char(1)
CONSTRAINT data_tbl_PK PRIMARY KEY (code)
Here is my solution, as a view using three queries joined by unions. The diff_type specified is how the record needs updated: deleted from _data(2), updated in _data(1), or added to _data(0)
CREATE VIEW delta_vw AS (
SELECT feed_tbl.code, feed_tbl.name, feed_tbl.status, feed_tbl.update, 0 as diff_type
FROM feed_tbl LEFT OUTER JOIN
data_tbl ON feed_tbl.code = data_tbl.code
WHERE (data_tbl.code IS NULL)
UNION
SELECT feed_tbl.code, feed_tbl.name, feed_tbl.status, feed_tbl.update, 1 as diff_type
FROM data_tbl RIGHT OUTER JOIN
feed_tbl ON data_tbl.code = feed_tbl.code
where (feed_tbl.name <> data_tbl.name) OR
(data_tbl.status <> feed_tbl.status) OR
(data_tbl.update <> feed_tbl.update)
UNION
SELECT data_tbl.code, data_tbl.name, data_tbl.status, data_tbl.update, 2 as diff_type
FROM feed_tbl LEFT OUTER JOIN
data_tbl ON data_tbl.code = feed_tbl.code
WHERE (feed_tbl.code IS NULL)
)

Answer 1

UNION will remove duplicates, so just UNION the two together, then search for anything with more than one entry. Given "code" as a primary key, you can say:
edit 0: modified to include differences in the PK field itself
edit 1: if you use this in real life, be sure to list the actual column names. Dont use dot-star, since the UNION operation requires result sets to have exactly matching columns. This example would break if you added / removed a column from one of the tables.
select dt.*
from
data_tbl dt
,(
select code
from
(
select * from feed_tbl
union
select * from data_tbl
)
group by code
having count(*) > 1
) diffs --"diffs" will return all differences *except* those in the primary key itself
where diffs.code = dt.code
union --plus the ones that are only in feed, but not in data
select * from feed_tbl ft where not exists(select code from data_tbl dt where dt.code = ft.code)
union --plus the ones that are only in data, but not in feed
select * from data_tbl dt where not exists(select code from feed_tbl ft where ft.code = dt.code)

Answer 2

I would use a minor variation in the second union:
where (ISNULL(feed_tbl.name, 'NONAME') <> ISNULL(data_tbl.name, 'NONAME')) OR
(ISNULL(data_tbl.status, 'NOSTATUS') <> ISNULL(feed_tbl.status, 'NOSTATUS')) OR
(ISNULL(data_tbl.update, '12/31/2039') <> ISNULL(feed_tbl.update, '12/31/2039'))
For reasons I have never understood, NULL does not equal NULL (at least in SQL Server).

Answer 3

You could also use a FULL OUTER JOIN and a CASE ... END statement on the diff_type column along with the aforementioned where clause in querying 2 tables with the same spec for the differences
That would probably achieve the same results, but in one query.