Joins and unions

Joins and set operations

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Joins and unions

Introduction
Join operations Set operations
Joins are used to combine data from two or more Set operations are used to combine or exclude data
tables based on related column(s) between them. based on the result of two SELECT queries. The
The result of a join is a new table that includes columns in each SELECT query must have the same
columns from both tables, arranged side by side. data types, and the number of columns in each query
must be the same.

Types of join operations: Types of set operations:

● INNER JOIN ● UNION

● LEFT JOIN (or LEFT OUTER JOIN) ● INTERSECT
● RIGHT JOIN (or RIGHT OUTER JOIN) ● EXCEPT
● FULL JOIN (or FULL OUTER JOIN)

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Joins and unions

The datasets

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To better understand join and union operations, we use two datasets that are SDG 6 related:
Countries table which has a Country_id, Country_name, and the country’s Population, and
the Water_usage table which has data on Water_consumed_m3 listed per Country_id.

Countries Water_usage

Country_id Country_name Population Country_id Water_consumed_m3

1 Country A 1000000 1 500000

2 Country B 1500000 2 800000

3 Country C 5000000 3 3000000

4 Country D 2000000 5 1000000

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Joins and unions

INNER JOIN

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An INNER JOIN is a type of join that returns only the rows from both tables where there is a
match between the specified columns in each table. It filters out the rows that do not have
corresponding matches in both tables.

SELECT
columns
FROM
table1
INNER JOIN
table2
ON
table1.column_name = table2.column_name;

Keyword that specifies the join condition, which is used

to match rows from table1 with rows from table2
based on the specified column(s). Matching rows
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Joins and unions

INNER JOIN

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To create a dataset with columns Country_name, Population, and Water_consumed_m3,
containing only the information for countries where there is data available in both the
Countries and Water_usage tables, we would utilise INNER JOIN.

Query Output

SELECT Country_name Population Water_consumed_m3

Countries.Country_name,
Countries.Population,
Water_usage.Water_consumed_m3 Country A 1000000 500000
FROM
Countries Country B 1500000 800000
INNER JOIN
Water_usage
Country C 5000000 3000000
ON
Countries.Country_id =
Water_usage.Country_id;
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Joins and unions

LEFT JOIN

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A LEFT JOIN, also known as a LEFT OUTER JOIN, returns all the rows from the left table and only
the matching rows from the right table. If there is no match in the right table, NULL values are
returned for the columns of the right table.

SELECT
columns
FROM
table1
LEFT JOIN
table2
ON
table1.column_name = table2.column_name;

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Joins and unions

LEFT JOIN

|
To generate a merged dataset with the columns Country_name, Population, and
Water_consumed_m3, with details for all countries in the Countries table, and incorporating
data from the Water_usage table (when available), you can employ the LEFT JOIN operation.

Query Output

SELECT
Country_name Population Water_consumed_m3
Countries.Country_name,
Countries.Population,
Country A 1000000 500000
Water_usage.Water_consumed_m3
FROM
Countries Country B 1500000 800000
LEFT JOIN
Water_usage Country C 5000000 3000000
ON
Countries.Country_id =
Country D 2000000 NULL
Water_usage.Country_id;
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Joins and unions

RIGHT JOIN

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A RIGHT JOIN, also known as a RIGHT OUTER JOIN, returns all the rows from the right table and
the matching rows from the left table. If there is no match in the left table, NULL values are
returned for the columns of the left table.

SELECT
columns
FROM
table1
RIGHT JOIN
table2
ON
table1.column_name = table2.column_name;

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Joins and unions

RIGHT JOIN

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To create a dataset comprising the columns Country_name, Population, and
Water_consumed_m3, it includes data for all water usage records from the Water_usage table,
along with any available associated country details from the Countries table.

Query Output

SELECT
Country_name Population Water_consumed_m3
Countries.Country_name,
Countries.Population,
Country A 1000000 500000
Water_usage.Water_consumed_m3
FROM
Countries Country B 1500000 800000
RIGHT JOIN
Water_usage Country C 5000000 3000000
ON
Countries.Country_id =
NULL NULL 1000000
Water_usage.Country_id;
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Joins and unions

FULL OUTER JOIN

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A FULL OUTER JOIN returns all the rows from both tables, including unmatched rows from both
the left and right tables. If there is no match in either table, NULL values are returned for the
columns of the respective table.

SELECT
columns
FROM
table1
FULL OUTER JOIN
table2
ON
table1.column_name = table2.column_name;

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Joins and unions

FULL OUTER JOIN

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FULL OUTER JOIN can be used to create a dataset that combines columns Country_name,
Population, and Water_consumed_m3, encompassing data for all countries from the
Countries table as well as all water usage records from the Water_usage table.

Query Output

SELECT Country_name Population Water_consumed_m3

Countries.Country_name,
Countries.Population, Country A 1000000 500000
Water_usage.Water_consumed_m3
FROM Country B 1500000 800000
Countries
FULL OUTER JOIN Country C 5000000 3000000
Water_usage
Country D 2000000 NULL
ON
Countries.Country_id =
NULL NULL 1000000
Water_usage.Country_id;
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Joins and unions

UNION

| The UNION operator is used to combine the results of two or more SELECT queries into a single
result set. It merges the rows from all queries while removing duplicates.

SELECT
columns
FROM
table1
UNION
SELECT
columns
FROM
table2;

The main difference between FULL OUTER JOIN and UNION is:
FULL OUTER JOIN combines rows from two tables, keeping all records and matching them when there is a common key, while
including NULLs for non-matching rows. UNION combines the results of multiple SELECT queries, removing duplicates and returning
only distinct rows. It does not include all unmatched rows from both sources like FULL OUTER JOIN does.

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Joins and unions

UNION

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UNION can be used to include the data from the Water_usage table in a combined result set
while preserving the structure of the Countries table, with NULL values for Country_name and
Population in place of specific data from the Countries table.

Query Output

Country_id Country_name Population

SELECT 1 Country A 1000000
Country_id, Country_name, Population
2 Country B 1500000
FROM
3 Country C 5000000
Countries
UNION 4 Country D 2000000
SELECT 1 NULL NULL
Country_id, NULL, NULL
2 NULL NULL
FROM
3 NULL NULL
Water_usage;
5 NULL NULL

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Joins and unions

INTERSECT

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The INTERSECT operator is used to combine the results of two or more SELECT queries and
returns only the rows that appear in all the result sets. It retrieves the common rows between
the queries while eliminating any duplicate rows.

SELECT
columns
FROM
table1
INTERSECT
SELECT
columns
FROM
table2;

The main difference between INNER JOIN and INTERSECT is:

INNER JOIN combines rows from two or more tables based on a specified join condition, while INTERSECT combines the results of
multiple queries and retrieves only the rows that are common to all the queries.

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Joins and unions

INTERSECT

| The INTERSECT operator can be used to find the common rows between two datasets.

Query Output

SELECT
Country_id Country_id
FROM
Countries 1
INTERSECT
SELECT 2
Country_id
FROM 3
Water_usage;

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Joins and unions

EXCEPT

| EXCEPT is used to retrieve the rows that appear in the first SELECT query but not in the second
SELECT query. It is used to find the difference between the results of two queries.

SELECT
columns
FROM
table1
EXCEPT
SELECT
columns
FROM
table2;

The main difference between LEFT JOIN and EXCEPT is:

LEFT JOIN combines rows from two tables based on a join condition, ensuring all rows from the left table are included. EXCEPT
does not involve any join and retrieves rows that are unique to the first query and not present in the second query.

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Joins and unions

EXCEPT

| EXCEPT is valuable for obtaining distinct Country_id values from the Countries table that are
absent in the Water_usage table.

Query Output

SELECT Country_id
Country_id
FROM 4

Countries
EXCEPT
SELECT
Country_id
FROM
Water_usage;

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