DISPLAYING DATA FROM MULTIPLE TABLES
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this module, you will learn how to:
1.Write a SELECT statement to access data from more
than one table using EQUIJOINS and NON EQUIJOINS.
2. Join a table to itself by using a SELF JOIN.
3.Generate a CARTESIAN PRODUCT of all the rows from two or
more tables.
DATA FROM MULTIPLE TABLES
There are times when the situation demands that
you view data from more than one table using one
SELECT statement.
If you have a department-id, and you want to post
a letter to the department, you would realize that
the post code is contained in the locations table.
You would have to join the departments table to
the locations table, to get the post code you need.
When you have such situations, you use the
JOIN
keyword.
Five types of JOIN comply with standard SQL.
These are:
The NATURAL JOIN
The USING Clause
The CROSS Join
The Full Outer Join and
The arbitrary join conditions for outer joins.
THE NATURAL JOIN
NATURAL JOIN is based on all the columns in the two tables
that have the same column_name and data type.
The joining condition for the NATURAL JOIN, is based
on the equality of these columns.
EXAMPLE:
Take a look at all the columns in the departments
table and the locations table.
A NATURAL JOIN adds all the columns in the department
table, to all the columns in the locations table.
Both tables are bound by the common column
which in this case is the location_id column and it
appears, as the first column in the query result.
A NATURAL JOIN is restricted using the WHERE clause.
FORMAT:
SELECT column_name
FROM table_name1
NATURAL JOIN table_name2
WHERE condition
EXAMPLE:
This would only display the columns with a
department_id greater than 30;
THE USING CLAUSE
The USING clause is used when more than one column
satisfies the JOIN condition i.e both tables have more
than one column in common.
The USING clause would specify which one column, to
be used for the JOIN.
EXAMPLE:
Note that the NATURAL JOIN and the USING clause can’t be used
together.
TABLE ALIASES
When joining tables that have many columns in
common, you need to specify which table a
particular column belongs to.
This would make the SELECT statement look very
long and confusing; making it necessary to use a
table alias.
Although the alias could be as long as
30 characters, it is better to keep it short and
simple.
FORMAT:
SELECT table_alias1.column_name1, table-aliase2.column_name2
FROM table_name1 JOIN table_name2
USING (column_name)
EXAMPLE:
Once a table alias is specified at the beginning of a
SELECT statement, it must be used throughout the SELECT
statement.
SELF JOINS
A self-JOIN, is used to JOIN a table to itself.
The ON keyword, is used alongside a self-JOIN
and where it is necessary to place a restriction on
the rows displayed you use the WHERE clause.
FORMAT:
SELECT column_name1, column_name2
FROM table1 a JOIN table1 b
ON (a.column_name1 condition b.column_name2)
EXERCISE:
Query the employees table for possible father and son
relationship among employees.
To do that, you have to know if the last_name
of any employee is the same as the
first_name of any other employee.
We are told that no data is found, that is to
say, such scenario does not exist.
EXERCISE:
Search the employees table for
employees who are managers.
These are employees whose employee_id
is the same as their manager_id
NON EQUIJOINS
A non-equijoin, is a join condition, that uses
any conditional operator, other than the
equality.
A typical equijoin, contains either the
BETWEEN comparison condition, or the ANY
comparison condition.
The <, >, <= and >= are examples of
comparison conditions used in non-
equijoins.
GENERATING CARTESIAN PRODUCTS
If you write a JOIN Query, and you fail to specify the JOIN
condition the Oracle Database optimizer returns
their CARTESIAN PRODUCT.
Oracle combines each row of one table, with each
row of the other table, resulting in many rows that
are rarely useful.
To avoid a , always include a valid
CARTESIAN PRODUCT
JOIN
condition, unless you specifically need a CARTESIAN PRODUCT.
Cartesian products are not always useless, when
we need a large number of rows for analysis
purpose, we use a CARTESIAN PRODUCT.
