Using Relational Databases and SQL Steven Emory Department of Computer Science California State University, Los Angeles Lecture 7: Subqueries and Set Operations

Topics for Today Set Operations UNION UNION ALL Subqueries WHERE clause HAVING clause FROM clause SELECT clause (next week) Correlated and Nested Subqueries (next week)

Set Operations UNION (supported by MySQL)‏ UNION ALL (supported by MySQL)‏ INTERSECT (not supported by MySQL)‏ EXCEPT/MINUS (not supported by MySQL)‏

UNION Combines the results from multiple SELECT statements into a single result set

UNION Syntax Two tables: SELECT... UNION [DISTINCT | ALL] SELECT... Three or more tables: SELECT... UNION [DISTINCT | ALL] SELECT... UNION [DISTINCT | ALL] SELECT......

UNION Restrictions Each SELECT clause must contain the same number of columns -- This is an error!!!! SELECT FirstName, LastName FROM People UNION DISTINCT SELECT BirthFirstName FROM People;

UNION Example UNION can also be used to append aggregate information. For each gender, list the number of accounts held by members of that gender and append a total member count to the bottom of the list.

UNION Example Solution: SELECT Gender, COUNT(Gender) FROM Accounts GROUP BY Gender UNION ALL SELECT 'Total', COUNT(Gender) FROM Members;

UNION and Duplicates By default, the UNION keyword alone removes duplicates (UNION DISTINCT is the default) To remove duplicates explicitly, use: UNION DISTINCT To keep duplicates use: UNION ALL Example: SELECT FirstName FROM People UNION ALL SELECT BirthFirstName FROM People;

UNION and Sorting To order all results in a UNION query, use a single ORDER BY clause that orders on one or more attributes from the first UNION You can also order all results using a single ORDER BY clause that orders on one or more column aliases defined in the first UNION

UNION and Sorting Examples: SELECT FirstName FROM People UNION DISTINCT SELECT BirthFirstName FROM People ORDER BY FirstName; SELECT FirstName AS Names FROM People UNION DISTINCT SELECT BirthFirstName FROM People ORDER BY Names;

Subqueries Subqueries are queries within queries Also called inner queries A query that contains a subquery is called an outer query A subquery must be surrounded by parentheses

Subquery Example Example (subquery in red): List all the name of all people that are not actors. SELECT FirstName, LastName FROM People WHERE PersonID NOT IN (SELECT ActorID FROM XRefActorsMovies);

When to Use Subqueries Use a subquery when: When it is impossible to solve the problem using a single query When a subquery solution to the problem runs faster than an equivalent non-subquery solution to the problem (rare with the current version of MySQL)

Subqueries are UGLY Example: SELECT Z.Type1, Z.Type2, CONCAT('$', TRUNCATE(Z.AvgPriceDifference, 2)) AS MaxAvgPriceDifference FROM (SELECT X.type AS Type1, Y.type AS Type2, ABS(X.AveragePrice - Y.AveragePrice) AS AvgPriceDifference FROM (SELECT type, AVG(price) AS AveragePrice FROM titles GROUP BY type) X JOIN (SELECT type, AVG(price) AS AveragePrice FROM titles GROUP BY type) Y WHERE X.type <> Y.type AND STRCMP(X.type, Y.type) Y.type AND STRCMP(X.type, Y.type) < 0) U)) Z;

How to Solve Subquery Problems To solve subquery problems: Always think substitution Analyze the question, looking for subqueries within the question Replace subqueries in the original question with substitution variables such as X, Y, and Z Write queries for your substitution variables Write a query to that solves the original question using your substitution variables Replace substitution variables with your subqueries

WHERE Clause Subqueries Use a subquery in the WHERE clause when you want to filter records from the outer query using a single value or list of values returned from one or more subqueries When filtering with a list of values (a single column of data), use the keywords IN, ALL, and ANY.

WHERE Clause Subquery Example Example: List all movie titles produced by Paramount Pictures or Twentieth Century-Fox. Do not use a join.

WHERE Clause Subquery Example Outer and Inner Queries: The outer query... SELECT Title FROM Movies WHERE CompanyID = (X) OR CompanyID = (Y); Inner query X... SELECT CompanyID FROM Companies WHERE Name = ‘Paramount Pictures’; Inner query Y... SELECT CompanyID FROM Companies WHERE Name = ‘Twentieth Century-Fox’;

WHERE Clause Subquery Example Solution: SELECT Title FROM Movies WHERE CompanyID = (SELECT CompanyID FROM Companies WHERE Name = ‘Paramount Pictures’) OR CompanyID = (SELECT CompanyID FROM Companies WHERE Name = ‘Twentieth Century-Fox’);

WHERE Clause Subquery Example Did I say you can't use aggregates in the WHERE clause? Not totally true. You can, but you need to put the aggregate calculation in a subquery so that it is computed first! List all movie titles with a runtime greater than the average runtime of all movies.

WHERE Clause Subquery Example Solution: SELECT Title FROM Movies WHERE Runtime > (SELECT AVG(Runtime) FROM Movies);

IN and NOT IN Use the IN keyword to test if an expression matches any items in a list (typically returned by a subquery)‏ Syntax: expression IN (list subquery)‏ expression NOT IN (list subquery)‏

IN Example Example: List the names of all actors. The outer query... SELECT FirstName, LastName FROM People WHERE PersonID IN (X); The inner query... SELECT ActorID FROM XRefActorsMovies; Substitute to get the solution... SELECT FirstName, LastName FROM People WHERE PersonID IN (SELECT ActorID FROM XRefActorsMovies);

ALL and ANY ALL The condition must hold true for all elements in the list. Syntax: expression operator ALL (list subquery)‏ ANY The condition may hold true for at least one element in the list. Syntax: expression operator ANY (list subquery)‏

ALL and ANY Examples Example: List the usernames of all accounts whose join dates are earlier than all of the accounts from Germany and Australia.

ALL and ANY Examples Outer and Inner Queries: Outer query... SELECT Username FROM Accounts WHERE JoinDate < ALL (X) AND JoinDate < ALL (Y); Inner query X... SELECT JoinDate FROM Accounts WHERE Country = ‘DEU’; Inner query Y... SELECT JoinDate FROM Accounts WHERE Country = ‘AUS’;

ALL and ANY Examples Substitute to get final solution: SELECT Username FROM Accounts WHERE JoinDate < ALL (SELECT JoinDate FROM Accounts WHERE Country = ‘DEU’) AND JoinDate < ALL (SELECT JoinDate FROM Accounts WHERE Country = ‘AUS’);

HAVING Clause Subqueries Like the WHERE clause, you can have subqueries in the HAVING clause as well Think substitution as well List only those countries for which the number of accounts in each country outnumber the total number of accounts from Australia.

HAVING Clause Subqueries Outer and Inner Queries: Outer Query: SELECT Country FROM Accounts GROUP BY Country HAVING COUNT(*) > (X) Inner Query: SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Accounts WHERE Country = ‘AUS’;

HAVING Clause Subqueries Substitute to get final solution: SELECT Country FROM Accounts GROUP BY Country HAVING COUNT(*) > (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Accounts WHERE Country = ‘AUS’);

FROM Clause Subqueries Queries oftentimes return tables FROM clause arguments are tables You can have subqueries in the FROM clause Always wrap your subqueries in parentheses Always define a table alias for any table returned by a subquery in the FROM clause

FROM Clause Subquery Usage Use a subquery in the FROM clause when you you need a complex table in the FROM clause that can only be computed using a separate query (i.e. joining tables involving aggregate calculations and unions).

FROM Clause Subquery Example Example: For each movie, list the movie title and the difference between the number of males who rated the movie better than 7 and the number of females who rated the movie better than 7. For example, if 5 males rated Star Trek: Generations better than 7 and only 2 females rated Star Trek: Generations better than 7, the displayed difference should be 3. Remember to think substitution!

FROM Clause Subquery Solution The Outer Query: SELECT X.Title, X.MaleCount – Y.FemaleCount FROM (X) X INNER JOIN (Y) Y USING(MovieID);

FROM Clause Subquery Solution The Inner Queries: Inner query X... SELECT MovieID, Title, SUM(Rating > 7) AS MaleCount FROM Movies LEFT JOIN Ratings USING(MovieID) LEFT JOIN Accounts USING(AccountID) WHERE Gender = 'M’ GROUP BY MovieID; Inner query Y... SELECT MovieID, Title, SUM(Rating > 7) AS FemaleCount FROM Movies LEFT JOIN Ratings USING(MovieID) LEFT JOIN Accounts USING(AccountID) WHERE Gender = 'F’ GROUP BY MovieID;

FROM Clause Subquery Solution Now substitute to get the final solution: SELECT X.Title, X.MaleCount – Y.FemaleCount FROM (SELECT MovieID, Title, SUM(Rating > 7) AS MaleCount FROM Movies LEFT JOIN Ratings USING(MovieID) LEFT JOIN Accounts USING(AccountID) WHERE Gender = 'M’ GROUP BY MovieID) X INNER JOIN (SELECT MovieID, Title, SUM(Rating > 7) AS FemaleCount FROM Movies LEFT JOIN Ratings USING(MovieID) LEFT JOIN Accounts USING(AccountID) WHERE Gender = 'F’ GROUP BY MovieID) Y USING(MovieID);

Sample Problems Problems: List the names of all actors in the movie archive database that are older than all of the actors from the movie ‘The X Files.’