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PostgreSQL Subquery

This document discusses PostgreSQL subqueries. It begins by explaining how to use a subquery to find films whose rental rate is higher than the average. It then provides examples of using subqueries with operators like IN and EXISTS. Subqueries allow complex queries to be written in a single statement rather than multiple steps. PostgreSQL executes a query containing a subquery by first running the subquery to obtain results, then passing those results to the outer query.

Uploaded by

Alberto Giudici
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
85 views

PostgreSQL Subquery

This document discusses PostgreSQL subqueries. It begins by explaining how to use a subquery to find films whose rental rate is higher than the average. It then provides examples of using subqueries with operators like IN and EXISTS. Subqueries allow complex queries to be written in a single statement rather than multiple steps. PostgreSQL executes a query containing a subquery by first running the subquery to obtain results, then passing those results to the outer query.

Uploaded by

Alberto Giudici
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PostgreSQL Subquery

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http://www.postgresqltutorial.com/postgresql-subquery/

PostgreSQL Subquery

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use the PostgreSQL subquery that allows you to
construct complex queries.

Introduction to PostgreSQL subquery


Lets start with a simple example.
Suppose we want to nd the lms whose rental rate is higher than the average rental rate. We can
do it in two steps:
Find the average rental rate by using the SELECT statement and average function ( AVG ).
Use the result of the rst query in the second SELECT statement to nd the lms that we
want.
The following query gets the average rental rate:
1 SELECT
2

AVG (rental_rate)

3 FROM
4

film

The average rental rate is 2.98


Now, we can get lms whose rental rate is higher than the average rental rate:
1 SELECT

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http://www.postgresqltutorial.com/postgresql-subquery/

1 SELECT
2

film_id,

title,

rental_rate

5 FROM
6

film

7 WHERE
8

rental_rate > 2.98

The code is not so elegant, which requires two steps. We want a way to pass the result of the rst
query to the second query in one query. The solution is to use a subquery.
A subquery is a query nested inside another query such as SELECT, INSERT, DELETE and
UPDATE . In this tutorial, we are focusing on the SELECT statement only.

To construct a subquery, we put the second query in brackets and use it in the WHERE clause as an
expression:
1

SELECT

film_id,

title,

rental_rate

FROM

film

WHERE

rental_rate > (

SELECT

10

AVG (rental_rate)

11

FROM

12

film

13

The query inside the brackets is called a subquery or an inner query. The query that contains the
subquery is known as an outer query.

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subquery is known as an outer query.


PostgreSQL executes the query that contains a subquery in the following sequence:
First, executes the subquery.
Second, gets the result and passes it to the outer query.
Third, executes the outer query.

PostgreSQL subquery with IN operator


A subquery can return zero or more rows. To use this subquery, you use the IN operator in the
WHERE clause.

For example, to get lms that have the returned date between 2005-05-29 and 2005-05-30 ,
you use the following query:
1 SELECT
2

inventory.film_id

3 FROM
4

rental

5 INNER JOIN inventory ON inventory.inventory_id = rental.inventory_id


6 WHERE
7

return_date BETWEEN '2005-05-29'

8 AND '2005-05-30'

It returns multiple rows so we can use this query as a subquery in the WHERE clause of a query as
follows:
1

SELECT

film_id,

title

4
5

FROM
film
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film

WHERE

film_id IN (

SELECT

inventory.film_id

http://www.postgresqltutorial.com/postgresql-subquery/

10

FROM

11

rental

12

INNER JOIN inventory ON inventory.inventory_id = rental.inventory_id

13

WHERE

14

return_date BETWEEN '2005-05-29'

15

AND '2005-05-30'

16

PostgreSQL subquery with EXISTS operator


The following expression illustrates how to use a subquery with EXISTS operator:
1 EXISTS subquery

A subquery can be an input of the EXISTS operator. If the subquery returns any row, the
EXISTS operator returns true. If the subquery returns no row, the result of EXISTS operator is
false.
The EXISTS operator only cares about the number of rows returned from the subquery, not the
content of the rows, therefore, the common coding convention of EXISTS operator is as follows:
1 EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM tbl WHERE condition)

See the following query:


1

SELECT

first_name,

last_name

FROM

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4
5
6

http://www.postgresqltutorial.com/postgresql-subquery/

FROM
customer
WHERE

EXISTS (

SELECT

10

FROM

11

payment

12

WHERE

13

payment.customer_id = customer.customer_id

14

The query works like an inner join on the customer id column. However, it returns at most one row
for each row in the customer table even though there are some corresponding rows in the
payment table.
In this tutorial, you have learned how to use the PostgreSQL subquery to construct complex
queries.

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