Oracle ALL Operator

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use the Oracle ALL operator to compare a value with a list or subquery.

Introduction to the Oracle ALL operator #

The Oracle ALL operator allows you to compare a value to a list of values or result set returned by a subquery.

The following shows the syntax of the ALL operator used with a list or a subquery:

operator ALL ( v1, v2, v3)

operator ALL ( subquery) 
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

In this syntax:

• The ALL operator must be preceded by an comparison operator such as =, != >,>=, <, <= and followed by a list or subquery.
• The list or subquery must be surrounded by the parentheses.

If all comparisons are true, the ALL operator returns true, or false otherwise.

If the subquery returns an empty result set, the ALL operator always returns true.

When you use the ALL operator to compare a value to a list, Oracle expands the initial condition to all elements of the list and uses the AND operator to combine them as shown below:

SELECT
  select_list
FROM
  table_name
WHERE
  c > ALL (v1, v2, v3);

--  transform the ALL operator
SELECT
  select_list
FROM
  table_name
WHERE
  c > v1
  AND c > v2
  AND c > v3;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

If you use the ALL operator to compare a value with a result set returned by a subquery, Oracle performs a two-step transformation as shown below:

SELECT
  product_name,
  list_price
FROM
  products
WHERE
  list_price > ALL (
    SELECT
      list_price
    FROM
      products
    WHERE
      category_id = 1
  )
ORDER BY
  product_name;

-- 1st step: transformation that uses ANY
SELECT
  product_name,
  list_price
FROM
  products p1
WHERE
  NOT (
    p1.list_price <= ANY (
      SELECT
        list_price
      FROM
        products p2
      WHERE
        category_id = 1
    )
  )
ORDER BY
  product_name;

-- 2nd step: transformation that eliminates ANY
SELECT
  product_name,
  list_price
FROM
  products p1
WHERE
  NOT EXISTS (
    SELECT
      p2.list_price
    FROM
      products p2
    WHERE
      p2.category_id = 1
      AND p2.list_price >= p1.list_price
  )
ORDER BY
  product_name;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

If the subquery returns no rows, then the following condition evaluates to true:

operator ALL (subquery)Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

This means that the query that uses the above condition in the WHERE clause will return all rows in case the subquery returns no rows.

SELECT
  select_list
FROM
  table_name
WHERE
  col operator ALL (subquery);Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Oracle ALL operator examples #

The following example finds the average list price of products in each product category:

SELECT
  ROUND(AVG(list_price), 2) avg_list_price
FROM
  products
GROUP BY
  category_id
ORDER BY
  avg_list_price DESC;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Try it

Output:

col > ALL (list) #

The expression evaluates to true if the col is greater than the biggest value in the list.

For example, the following query finds all products whose list prices are greater than the highest price of the average price list:

SELECT
  product_name,
  list_price
FROM
  products
WHERE
  list_price > ALL (
    SELECT
      AVG(list_price)
    FROM
      products
    GROUP BY
      category_id
  )
ORDER BY
  list_price ASC;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Try it

col < ALL(list) #

The expression evaluates to true if the col is smaller than the smallest value in the list.

For example, the following query finds all products whose list prices are less than the lowest price in the average price list:

SELECT
  product_name,
  list_price
FROM
  products
WHERE
  list_price < ALL (
    SELECT
      AVG(list_price)
    FROM
      products
    GROUP BY
      category_id
  )
ORDER BY
  list_price DESC;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Try it

col >= ALL(list) #

The expression evaluates to true if the col is greater than or equal to the biggest value in the list.

The following statement returns CPU products whose list price is greater than or equal to 2200:

SELECT
  product_name,
  list_price
FROM
  products
WHERE
  list_price >= ALL (1000, 1500, 2200)
  AND category_id = 1
ORDER BY
  list_price DESC;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Try it

col <= ALL(list) #

The expression evaluates to true if the col is less than or equal to the smallest value in the list.

The following statement returns the CPU products whose list price is less than or equal to 977.99, which is the smallest value in the list.

SELECT
  product_name,
  list_price
FROM
  products
WHERE
  list_price <= ALL (977.99, 1000, 2200)
  AND category_id = 1
ORDER BY
  list_price DESC;Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Try it

col = ALL ( list) #

The expression evaluates to true if the col matches all values in the list. This is only true when the the list is empty or has one item that equals the column.

col != ALL (list) #

The expression evaluates to true if the col does not match all values in the list.

Summary #

• Use the Oracle ALL operator to compare a value with a list or subquery.

Quiz #