SET Operations in SQL
SQL supports few Set operations which can be performed on the table data. These are used to get
meaningful results from data stored in the table, under different special conditions.
In this tutorial, we will cover 4 different types of SET operations, along with example:
1. UNION
2. UNION ALL
3. INTERSECT
4. MINUS
UNION Operation
UNION is used to combine the results of two or more SELECT statements. However it will
eliminate duplicate rows from its resultset. In case of union, number of columns and datatype
must be same in both the tables, on which UNION operation is being applied.
Example of UNION
The First table,
ID Name
1 abhi
2 adam
The Second table,
ID Name
2 adam
3 Chester
Union SQL query will be,
SELECT * FROM First
UNION
SELECT * FROM Second;
The resultset table will look like,
ID NAME
1 abhi
2 adam
3 Chester
UNION ALL
This operation is similar to Union. But it also shows the duplicate rows.
Example of Union All
The First table,
ID NAME
1 abhi
2 adam
The Second table,
ID NAME
2 adam
3 Chester
Union All query will be like,
SELECT * FROM First
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM Second;
The resultset table will look like,
ID NAME
1 abhi
2 adam
2 adam
3 Chester
INTERSECT
Intersect operation is used to combine two SELECT statements, but it only retuns the records
which are common from both SELECT statements. In case of Intersect the number of columns
and datatype must be same.
NOTE: MySQL does not support INTERSECT operator.
Example of Intersect
The First table,
ID NAME
1 abhi
2 adam
The Second table,
ID NAME
2 adam
3 Chester
Intersect query will be,
SELECT * FROM First
INTERSECT
SELECT * FROM Second;
The resultset table will look like
ID NAME
2 adam
MINUS
The Minus operation combines results of two SELECT statements and return only those in the
final result, which belongs to the first set of the result.
Example of Minus
The First table,
ID NAME
1 abhi
2 adam
The Second table,
ID NAME
2 adam
3 Chester
Minus query will be,
SELECT * FROM First
MINUS
SELECT * FROM Second;
The resultset table will look like,
ID NAME
1 abhi