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SQL Server Self Join

Self join allows a table to be joined to itself. It is useful for querying hierarchical data by comparing rows within the same table. A self join uses table aliases to reference the same table multiple times. The syntax includes the table being joined twice with different aliases, and the join predicate matches columns between the aliased tables. Examples shown include using a self join to find employees and their managers from a staff table, and finding customers located in the same city from a customers table.

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248 views

SQL Server Self Join

Self join allows a table to be joined to itself. It is useful for querying hierarchical data by comparing rows within the same table. A self join uses table aliases to reference the same table multiple times. The syntax includes the table being joined twice with different aliases, and the join predicate matches columns between the aliased tables. Examples shown include using a self join to find employees and their managers from a staff table, and finding customers located in the same city from a customers table.

Uploaded by

leonard1971
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SQL Server Self Join

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use the SQL Server self join to join a table to itself.

SQL Server self join syntax


A self join allows you to join a table to itself. It is useful for querying hierarchical data or comparing
rows within the same table.

A self join uses the inner join or left join clause. Because the query that uses self join references the
same table, the table alias is used to assign different names to the table within the query.

Note that if you reference the same table more than one in a query without using table aliases, you
will get an error.

The following shows the syntax of joining the table T to itself:


1 SELECT
2 select_list
3 FROM
4 T t1
5 [INNER | LEFT] JOIN T t2 ON
6 join_predicate;
The query references the table T twice. The table aliases t1 and t2 are used to assign the T table
different names.
SQL Server self join examples
Let’s take some examples to understand the how the self join works.

1) Using self join to query hierarchical data


Consider the following staffs table from the sample database:
The staffs table stores the staff information such as id, first name, last name, and email. It also
has a column named manager_id that specifies the direct manager. For example, Mireya reports
to Fabiola because the value in the manager_id of Mireya is Fabiola .
Fabiola has no manager so the manager id column has a NULL.

To get who reports to whom, you use the self join as shown in the following query:

1 SELECT
2 e.first_name + ' ' + e.last_name employee,
3 m.first_name + ' ' + m.last_name manager
4 FROM
5 sales.staffs e
6 INNER JOIN sales.staffs m ON m.staff_id = e.manager_id
7 ORDER BY
8 manager;

In this example, we referenced to the staffs table twice: one as e for the employees and the other
as m for the managers. The join predicate matches employee and manager relationship using the
values in the e.manager_id and m.staff_id columns.
The employee column does not have Fabiola Jackson because of the INNER JOIN effect. If you
replace the INNER JOIN clause by the LEFT JOIN clause as shown in the following query, you will
get the result set that includes Fabiola Jackson in the employee column:
1 SELECT
2 e.first_name + ' ' + e.last_name employee,
3 m.first_name + ' ' + m.last_name manager
4 FROM
5 sales.staffs e
6 LEFT JOIN sales.staffs m ON m.staff_id = e.manager_id
7 ORDER BY
8 manager;
2) Using self join to compare rows within a table
See the following customers table:

The following statement uses the self join to find the customers located in the same city.

1 SELECT
2 c1.first_name + ' ' + c1.last_name customer_1,
3 c2.first_name + ' ' + c2.last_name customer_2,
4 c1.city
5 FROM
6 sales.customers c1
7 INNER JOIN sales.customers c2 ON c1.customer_id <> c2.customer_id
8 AND c1.city = c2.city
9 ORDER BY
10 customer_1,
11 customer_2;
In this tutorial, you have learned how to use an SQL Server self join to query hierarchical data and
compare rows in the same table.

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