Fixing EXCEPT Not Working in MySQL

You cannot use except in MySQL. You can work with NOT IN operator to get the same result. Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable1
 (
 Number1 int
 );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.71 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable1 values(100);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable1 values(200);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable1 values(300);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement:

mysql> select *from DemoTable1

This will produce the following output −

+---------+
| Number1 |
+---------+
|     100 |
|     200 |
|     300 |
+---------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to create second table −

mysql> create table DemoTable2
   (
   Number1 int
   );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.52 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable2 values(100);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.17 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable2 values(400);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable2 values(300);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.11 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable2;

This will produce the following output −

+---------+
| Number1 |
+---------+
|     100 |
|     400 |
|     300 |
+---------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to learn how to use NOT IN operator in place of except −

mysql> select Number1 from DemoTable1
where Number1 not in (SELECT Number1 FROM DemoTable2);

This will produce the following output −

+---------+
| Number1 |
+---------+
|     200 |
+---------+
1 row in set (0.04 sec)