I have two tables with binding primary keys in the database and I want to find a disjoint set between them. For example,
Table1
| ID | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | John |
| 2 | Peter |
| 3 | Mary |
Table2
| ID | Address |
|---|---|
| 1 | address2 |
| 2 | address2 |
So how do I create a SQL query so I can fetch the row with ID from table1 that is not in table2? In this case, (3, Mary) should be returned.
PS: The ID is the primary key for those two tables.
Try this
SELECT ID, Name
FROM Table1
WHERE ID NOT IN (SELECT ID FROM Table2)
Use LEFT JOIN
SELECT a.*
FROM table1 a
LEFT JOIN table2 b
on a.ID = b.ID
WHERE b.id IS NULL
There are basically 3 approaches to that: not exists, not in and left join / is null.
SELECT l.*
FROM t_left l
LEFT JOIN
t_right r
ON r.value = l.value
WHERE r.value IS NULL
SELECT l.*
FROM t_left l
WHERE l.value NOT IN
(
SELECT value
FROM t_right r
)
SELECT l.*
FROM t_left l
WHERE NOT EXISTS
(
SELECT NULL
FROM t_right r
WHERE r.value = l.value
)
Which one is better? The answer to this question might be better to be broken down to major specific RDBMS vendors. Generally speaking, one should avoid using select ... where ... in (select...) when the magnitude of number of records in the sub-query is unknown. Some vendors might limit the size. Oracle, for example, has a limit of 1,000. Best thing to do is to try all three and show the execution plan.
Specifically form PostgreSQL, execution plan of NOT EXISTS and LEFT JOIN / IS NULL are the same. I personally prefer the NOT EXISTS option because it shows better the intent. After all the semantic is that you want to find records in A that its pk do not exist in B.
Old but still gold, specific to PostgreSQL though: https://explainextended.com/2009/09/16/not-in-vs-not-exists-vs-left-join-is-null-postgresql/
I ran some tests (on postgres 9.5) using two tables with ~2M rows each. This query below performed at least 5* better than the other queries proposed:
-- Count
SELECT count(*) FROM (
(SELECT id FROM table1) EXCEPT (SELECT id FROM table2)
) t1_not_in_t2;
-- Get full row
SELECT table1.* FROM (
(SELECT id FROM table1) EXCEPT (SELECT id FROM table2)
) t1_not_in_t2 JOIN table1 ON t1_not_in_t2.id=table1.id;
Keeping in mind the points made in @John Woo's comment/link above, this is how I typically would handle it:
SELECT t1.ID, t1.Name
FROM Table1 t1
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT TOP 1 NULL
FROM Table2 t2
WHERE t1.ID = t2.ID
)
SELECT COUNT(ID) FROM tblA a
WHERE a.ID NOT IN (SELECT b.ID FROM tblB b) --For count
SELECT ID FROM tblA a
WHERE a.ID NOT IN (SELECT b.ID FROM tblB b) --For results
