Part 1 - Joins and Unions
This answer covers:
- Part 1
- Joining two or more tables using an inner join (See the wikipedia entry for additional info)
- How to use a union query
- Left and Right Outer Joins (this stackOverflow answer is excellent to describe types of joins)
- Intersect queries (and how to reproduce them if your database doesn't support them) - this is a function of SQL-Server (see info) and part of the reason I wrote this whole thing in the first place.
- Part 2
- Subqueries - what they are, where they can be used and what to watch out for
- Cartesian joins AKA - Oh, the misery!
There are a number of ways to retrieve data from multiple tables in a database. In this answer, I will be using ANSI-92 join syntax. This may be different to a number of other tutorials out there which use the older ANSI-89 syntax (and if you are used to 89, may seem much less intuitive - but all I can say is to try it) as it is much easier to understand when the queries start getting more complex. Why use it? Is there a performance gain? The short answer is no, but it is easier to read once you get used to it. It is easier to read queries written by other folks using this syntax.
I am also going to use the concept of a small caryard which has a database to keep track of what cars it has available. The owner has hired you as his IT Computer guy and expects you to be able to drop him the data that he asks for at the drop of a hat.
I have made a number of lookup tables that will be used by the final table. This will give us a reasonable model to work from. To start off, I will be running my queries against an example database that has the following structure. I will try to think of common mistakes that are made when starting out and explain what goes wrong with them - as well as of course showing how to correct them.
The first table is simply a color listing so that we know what colors we have in the car yard.
mysql> create table colors(id int(3) not null auto_increment primary key,
-> color varchar(15), paint varchar(10));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> show columns from colors;
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id | int(3) | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |
| color | varchar(15) | YES | | NULL | |
| paint | varchar(10) | YES | | NULL | |
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
3 rows in set (0.01 sec)
mysql> insert into colors (color, paint) values ('Red', 'Metallic'),
-> ('Green', 'Gloss'), ('Blue', 'Metallic'),
-> ('White' 'Gloss'), ('Black' 'Gloss');
Query OK, 5 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 5 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
mysql> select * from colors;
+----+-------+----------+
| id | color | paint |
+----+-------+----------+
| 1 | Red | Metallic |
| 2 | Green | Gloss |
| 3 | Blue | Metallic |
| 4 | White | Gloss |
| 5 | Black | Gloss |
+----+-------+----------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)
The brands table identifies the different brands of the cars out caryard could possibly sell.
mysql> create table brands (id int(3) not null auto_increment primary key,
-> brand varchar(15));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> show columns from brands;
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id | int(3) | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |
| brand | varchar(15) | YES | | NULL | |
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
2 rows in set (0.01 sec)
mysql> insert into brands (brand) values ('Ford'), ('Toyota'),
-> ('Nissan'), ('Smart'), ('BMW');
Query OK, 5 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 5 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
mysql> select * from brands;
+----+--------+
| id | brand |
+----+--------+
| 1 | Ford |
| 2 | Toyota |
| 3 | Nissan |
| 4 | Smart |
| 5 | BMW |
+----+--------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)
The model table will cover off different types of cars, it is going to be simpler for this to use different car types rather than actual car models.
mysql> create table models (id int(3) not null auto_increment primary key,
-> model varchar(15));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> show columns from models;
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id | int(3) | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |
| model | varchar(15) | YES | | NULL | |
+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> insert into models (model) values ('Sports'), ('Sedan'), ('4WD'), ('Luxury');
Query OK, 4 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 4 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
mysql> select * from models;
+----+--------+
| id | model |
+----+--------+
| 1 | Sports |
| 2 | Sedan |
| 3 | 4WD |
| 4 | Luxury |
+----+--------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
And finally, to tie up all these other tables, the table that ties everything together. The ID field is actually the unique lot number used to identify cars.
mysql> create table cars (id int(3) not null auto_increment primary key,
-> color int(3), brand int(3), model int(3));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> show columns from cars;
+-------+--------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-------+--------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id | int(3) | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |
| color | int(3) | YES | | NULL | |
| brand | int(3) | YES | | NULL | |
| model | int(3) | YES | | NULL | |
+-------+--------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> insert into cars (color, brand, model) values (1,2,1), (3,1,2), (5,3,1),
-> (4,4,2), (2,2,3), (3,5,4), (4,1,3), (2,2,1), (5,2,3), (4,5,1);
Query OK, 10 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 10 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
mysql> select * from cars;
+----+-------+-------+-------+
| id | color | brand | model |
+----+-------+-------+-------+
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 6 | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| 7 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 8 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 9 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| 10 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
+----+-------+-------+-------+
10 rows in set (0.00 sec)
This will give us enough data (I hope) to cover off the examples below of different types of joins and also give enough data to make them worthwhile.
So getting into the grit of it, the boss wants to know The IDs of all the sports cars he has.
This is a simple two table join. We have a table that identifies the model and the table with the available stock in it. As you can see, the data in the model column of the cars table relates to the models column of the cars table we have. Now, we know that the models table has an ID of 1 for Sports so lets write the join.
select
ID,
model
from
cars
join models
on model=ID
So this query looks good right? We have identified the two tables and contain the information we need and use a join that correctly identifies what columns to join on.
ERROR 1052 (23000): Column 'ID' in field list is ambiguous
Oh noes! An error in our first query! Yes, and it is a plum. You see, the query has indeed got the right columns, but some of them exist in both tables, so the database gets confused about what actual column we mean and where. There are two solutions to solve this. The first is nice and simple, we can use tableName.columnName to tell the database exactly what we mean, like this:
select
cars.ID,
models.model
from
cars
join models
on cars.model=models.ID
+----+--------+
| ID | model |
+----+--------+
| 1 | Sports |
| 3 | Sports |
| 8 | Sports |
| 10 | Sports |
| 2 | Sedan |
| 4 | Sedan |
| 5 | 4WD |
| 7 | 4WD |
| 9 | 4WD |
| 6 | Luxury |
+----+--------+
10 rows in set (0.00 sec)
The other is probably more often used and is called table aliasing. The tables in this example have nice and short simple names, but typing out something like KPI_DAILY_SALES_BY_DEPARTMENT would probably get old quickly, so a simple way is to nickname the table like this:
select
a.ID,
b.model
from
cars a
join models b
on a.model=b.ID
Now, back to the request. As you can see we have the information we need, but we also have information that wasn't asked for, so we need to include a where clause in the statement to only get the Sports cars as was asked. As I prefer the table alias method rather than using the table names over and over, I will stick to it from this point onwards.
Clearly, we need to add a where clause to our query. We can identify Sports cars either by ID=1 or model='Sports'. As the ID is indexed and the primary key (and it happens to be less typing), lets use that in our query.
select
a.ID,
b.model
from
cars a
join models b
on a.model=b.ID
where
b.ID=1
+----+--------+
| ID | model |
+----+--------+
| 1 | Sports |
| 3 | Sports |
| 8 | Sports |
| 10 | Sports |
+----+--------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Bingo! The boss is happy. Of course, being a boss and never being happy with what he asked for, he looks at the information, then says I want the colors as well.
Okay, so we have a good part of our query already written, but we need to use a third table which is colors. Now, our main information table cars stores the car color ID and this links back to the colors ID column. So, in a similar manner to the original, we can join a third table:
select
a.ID,
b.model
from
cars a
join models b
on a.model=b.ID
join colors c
on a.color=c.ID
where
b.ID=1
+----+--------+
| ID | model |
+----+--------+
| 1 | Sports |
| 3 | Sports |
| 8 | Sports |
| 10 | Sports |
+----+--------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Damn, although the t
