6

Displaying Data
from Multiple Tables
 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to do the

following:
• Write SELECT statements to access data from more than
one table using equijoins and nonequijoins
• Join a table to itself by using a self-join
• View data that generally does not meet a join condition by
using outer joins
• Generate a Cartesian product of all rows from two or more
tables

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 Lesson Agenda

• Types of JOINS and its syntax

• Natural join:
– USING clause
– ON clause
• Self-join
• Nonequijoins
• OUTER join:
– LEFT OUTER join
– RIGHT OUTER join
– FULL OUTER join
• Cartesian product
– Cross join

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 Obtaining Data from Multiple Tables

EMPLOYEES DEPARTMENTS

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 Types of Joins

Joins that are compliant with the SQL:1999 standard include

the following:
• Natural joins:
– NATURAL JOIN clause
– USING clause
– ON clause
• Outer joins:
– LEFT OUTER JOIN
– RIGHT OUTER JOIN
– FULL OUTER JOIN
• Cross joins

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 Joining Tables Using SQL:1999 Syntax

Use a join to query data from more than one table:

SELECT table1.column, table2.column

FROM table1
[NATURAL JOIN table2] |
[JOIN table2 USING (column_name)] |
[JOIN table2
ON (table1.column_name = table2.column_name)]|
[LEFT|RIGHT|FULL OUTER JOIN table2
ON (table1.column_name = table2.column_name)]|
[CROSS JOIN table2];

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 Qualifying Ambiguous
Column Names
• Use table prefixes to qualify column names that are in
multiple tables.
• Use table prefixes to improve performance.
• Instead of full table name prefixes, use table aliases.
• Table alias gives a table a shorter name:
– Keeps SQL code smaller, uses less memory
• Use column aliases to distinguish columns that have
identical names, but reside in different tables.

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 Lesson Agenda

• Types of JOINS and its syntax

• Natural join:
– USING clause
– ON clause
• Self-join
• Nonequijoins
• OUTER join:
– LEFT OUTER join
– RIGHT OUTER join
– FULL OUTER join
• Cartesian product
– Cross join

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 Creating Natural Joins

• The NATURAL JOIN clause is based on all columns in the

two tables that have the same name.
• It selects rows from the two tables that have equal values in
all matched columns.
• If the columns having the same names have different data
types, an error is returned.

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 Retrieving Records with Natural Joins

SELECT department_id, department_name,

location_id, city
FROM departments
NATURAL JOIN locations ;

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 Creating Joins with the USING Clause

• If several columns have the same names but the data types
do not match, natural join can be applied using the USING
clause to specify the columns that should be used for an
equijoin.
• Use the USING clause to match only one column when more
than one column matches.
• The NATURAL JOIN and USING clauses are mutually
exclusive.

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 Joining Column Names

EMPLOYEES DEPARTMENTS

Primary key

Foreign key

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 Retrieving Records with the USING Clause

SELECT employee_id, last_name,

location_id, department_id
FROM employees JOIN departments
USING (department_id) ;

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 Using Table Aliases with the USING Clause

• Do not qualify a column that is used in the USING clause.

• If the same column is used elsewhere in the SQL statement,
do not alias it.
SELECT l.city, d.department_name
FROM locations l JOIN departments d
USING (location_id)
WHERE d.location_id = 1400;

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 Creating Joins with the ON Clause

• The join condition for the natural join is basically an equijoin

of all columns with the same name.
• Use the ON clause to specify arbitrary conditions or specify
columns to join.
• The join condition is separated from other search conditions.
• The ON clause makes code easy to understand.

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 Retrieving Records with the ON Clause

SELECT e.employee_id, e.last_name, e.department_id,

d.department_id, d.location_id
FROM employees e JOIN departments d
ON (e.department_id = d.department_id);

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 Creating Three-Way Joins with
the ON Clause

SELECT employee_id, city, department_name

FROM employees e
JOIN departments d
ON d.department_id = e.department_id
JOIN locations l
ON d.location_id = l.location_id;

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 Applying Additional Conditions
to a Join
Use the AND clause or the WHERE clause to apply additional
conditions:
SELECT e.employee_id, e.last_name, e.department_id,
d.department_id, d.location_id
FROM employees e JOIN departments d
ON (e.department_id = d.department_id)
AND e.manager_id = 149 ;

Or
SELECT e.employee_id, e.last_name, e.department_id,
d.department_id, d.location_id
FROM employees e JOIN departments d
ON (e.department_id = d.department_id)
WHERE e.manager_id = 149 ;

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 Lesson Agenda

• Types of JOINS and its syntax

• Natural join:
– USING clause
– ON clause
• Self-join
• Nonequijoins
• OUTER join:
– LEFT OUTER join
– RIGHT OUTER join
– FULL OUTER join
• Cartesian product
– Cross join

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 Joining a Table to Itself

EMPLOYEES (WORKER) EMPLOYEES (MANAGER)

… …

MANAGER_ID in the WORKER table is equal to

EMPLOYEE_ID in the MANAGER table.

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 Self-Joins Using the ON Clause

SELECT worker.last_name emp, manager.last_name mgr

FROM employees worker JOIN employees manager
ON (worker.manager_id = manager.employee_id);

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 Lesson Agenda

• Types of JOINS and its syntax

• Natural join:
– USING clause
– ON clause
• Self-join
• Nonequijoins
• OUTER join:
– LEFT OUTER join
– RIGHT OUTER join
– FULL OUTER join
• Cartesian product
– Cross join

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 Nonequijoins

EMPLOYEES JOB_GRADES

JOB_GRADES table defines the

… LOWEST_SAL and HIGHEST_SAL range
of values for each GRADE_LEVEL.
Hence, the GRADE_LEVEL column can
be used to assign grades to each
employee.

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 Retrieving Records
with Nonequijoins

SELECT e.last_name, e.salary, j.grade_level

FROM employees e JOIN job_grades j
ON e.salary
BETWEEN j.lowest_sal AND j.highest_sal;

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 Lesson Agenda

• Types of JOINS and its syntax

• Natural join:
– USING clause
– ON clause
• Self-join
• Nonequijoins
• OUTER join:
– LEFT OUTER join
– RIGHT OUTER join
– FULL OUTER join
• Cartesian product
– Cross join

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 Returning Records with No Direct Match
with Outer Joins

DEPARTMENTS EMPLOYEES

There are no employees in

department 190.

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 INNER Versus OUTER Joins

• In SQL:1999, the join of two tables returning only matched

rows is called an inner join.
• A join between two tables that returns the results of the inner
join as well as the unmatched rows from the left (or right)
table is called a left (or right) outer join.
• A join between two tables that returns the results of an inner
join as well as the results of a left and right join is a full outer
join.

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 LEFT OUTER JOIN

SELECT e.last_name, e.department_id, d.department_name

FROM employees e LEFT OUTER JOIN departments d
ON (e.department_id = d.department_id) ;

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 RIGHT OUTER JOIN

SELECT e.last_name, e.department_id, d.department_name

FROM employees e RIGHT OUTER JOIN departments d
ON (e.department_id = d.department_id) ;

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 FULL OUTER JOIN

SELECT e.last_name, d.department_id, d.department_name

FROM employees e FULL OUTER JOIN departments d
ON (e.department_id = d.department_id) ;

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 Lesson Agenda

• Types of JOINS and its syntax

• Natural join:
– USING clause
– ON clause
• Self-join
• Nonequiijoin
• OUTER join:
– LEFT OUTER join
– RIGHT OUTER join
– FULL OUTER join
• Cartesian product
– Cross join

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 Cartesian Products

• A Cartesian product is formed when:

– A join condition is omitted
– A join condition is invalid
– All rows in the first table are joined to all rows in the second
table
• To avoid a Cartesian product, always include a valid join
condition.

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 Generating a Cartesian Product

EMPLOYEES (20 rows) DEPARTMENTS (8 rows)

Cartesian product:

20 x 8 = 160 rows
…

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 Creating Cross Joins

• The CROSS JOIN clause produces the cross-product of two

tables.
• This is also called a Cartesian product between the two
tables.
SELECT last_name, department_name
FROM employees
CROSS JOIN departments ;

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 Summary

In this lesson, you should have learned how to use joins to

display data from multiple tables by using:
• Equijoins
• Nonequijoins
• Outer joins
• Self-joins
• Cross joins
• Natural joins
• Full (or two-sided) outer joins

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 Practice 6: Overview

This practice covers the following topics:

• Joining tables using an equijoin
• Performing outer and self-joins
• Adding conditions

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