7.4. Combining Queries (UNION
,INTERSECT
,EXCEPT
)#
The results of two queries can be combined using the set operations union, intersection, and difference. The syntax is
query1
UNION [ALL]query2
query1
INTERSECT [ALL]query2
query1
EXCEPT [ALL]query2
wherequery1
andquery2
are queries that can use any of the features discussed up to this point.
UNION
effectively appends the result ofquery2
to the result ofquery1
(although there is no guarantee that this is the order in which the rows are actually returned). Furthermore, it eliminates duplicate rows from its result, in the same way asDISTINCT
, unlessUNION ALL
is used.
INTERSECT
returns all rows that are both in the result ofquery1
and in the result ofquery2
. Duplicate rows are eliminated unlessINTERSECT ALL
is used.
EXCEPT
returns all rows that are in the result ofquery1
but not in the result ofquery2
. (This is sometimes called thedifference between two queries.) Again, duplicates are eliminated unlessEXCEPT ALL
is used.
In order to calculate the union, intersection, or difference of two queries, the two queries must be“union compatible”, which means that they return the same number of columns and the corresponding columns have compatible data types, as described inSection 10.5.
Set operations can be combined, for example
query1
UNIONquery2
EXCEPTquery3
which is equivalent to
(query1
UNIONquery2
) EXCEPTquery3
As shown here, you can use parentheses to control the order of evaluation. Without parentheses,UNION
andEXCEPT
associate left-to-right, butINTERSECT
binds more tightly than those two operators. Thus
query1
UNIONquery2
INTERSECTquery3
means
query1
UNION (query2
INTERSECTquery3
)
You can also surround an individualquery
with parentheses. This is important if thequery
needs to use any of the clauses discussed in following sections, such asLIMIT
. Without parentheses, you'll get a syntax error, or else the clause will be understood as applying to the output of the set operation rather than one of its inputs. For example,
SELECT a FROM b UNION SELECT x FROM y LIMIT 10
is accepted, but it means
(SELECT a FROM b UNION SELECT x FROM y) LIMIT 10
not
SELECT a FROM b UNION (SELECT x FROM y LIMIT 10)