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Oracle Correlated SubQuery

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8 views

Oracle Correlated SubQuery

Uploaded by

pj6974527
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Oracle Correlated SubQuery

The Oracle correlated subquery which is a subquery whose some clauses refer to the
column expressions in the outer query.

Introduction to the Oracle correlated subquery

The following query returns the cheapest products from the products table using
a subquery in the WHERE clause.

SELECT
product_id,
product_name,
list_price
FROM
products
WHERE
list_price =(
SELECT
MIN( list_price )
FROM
products
);
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Let’s examine this query in more detail.

First, you can execute the subquery independently.

SELECT
MIN( list_price )
FROM
products;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Second, Oracle evaluates the subquery only once.


Third, after the subquery returns a result set, the outer query makes use of them. In
other words, the outer query depends on the subquery. However, the subquery is
isolated and not dependent on the values of the outer query.

Unlike the above subquery, a correlated subquery is a subquery that uses values
from the outer query. In addition, a correlated subquery may be evaluated once for
each row selected by the outer query. Because of this, a query that uses a correlated
subquery could be slow.

A correlated subquery is also known as a repeating subquery or a synchronized


subquery.

Oracle correlated subquery examples


Let’s take some examples of the correlated subqueries to better understand how
they work.

A) Oracle correlated subquery in the WHERE clause example

The following query finds all products whose list price is above average for their
category.

SELECT
product_id,
product_name,
list_price
FROM
products p
WHERE
list_price > (
SELECT
AVG( list_price )
FROM
products
WHERE
category_id = p.category_id
);
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)
In the above query, the outer query is:

SELECT
product_id,
product_name,
list_price
FROM
products p
WHERE
list_price >
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

And the correlated subquery is:

SELECT
AVG( list_price )
FROM
products
WHERE
category_id = p.category_id
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

For each product from the products table, Oracle has to execute the correlated
subquery to calculate the average price by category.

B) Oracle correlated subquery in the SELECT clause example

The following query returns all products and the average standard cost based on the
product category:

SELECT
product_id,
product_name,
standard_cost,
ROUND(
(
SELECT
AVG( standard_cost )
FROM
products
WHERE
category_id = p.category_id
),
2
) avg_standard_cost
FROM
products p
ORDER BY
product_name;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

For each product from the products table, Oracle executed the correlated subquery to
calculate the average standard of cost for the product category.

Note that the above query used the ROUND() function to round the average
standard cost to two decimals.

C) Oracle correlated subquery with the EXISTS operator example

We usually use a correlated subquery with the EXISTS operator. For example, the
following statement returns all customers who have no orders:

SELECT customer_id,name FROM customers


WHERE
NOT EXISTS (
SELECT
*
FROM
orders
WHERE
orders.customer_id = customers.customer_id
) ORDER BY name;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

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