5

Displaying Data
from Multiple Tables

Copyright © 2004, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 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 non-
equijoins
• 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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 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:
• Cross joins
• Natural joins
• USING clause
• Full (or two-sided) outer joins
• Arbitrary join conditions for outer 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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 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, the NATURAL JOIN clause
can be modified with 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.
• Do not use a table name or alias in the referenced
columns.
• The NATURAL JOIN and USING clauses are
mutually exclusive.

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 Joining Column Names

EMPLOYEES DEPARTMENTS

… …
Foreign key Primary key

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 Retrieving Records with the USING Clause

SELECT employees.employee_id, employees.last_name,

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

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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.
• Use column aliases to distinguish columns that
have identical names but reside in different tables.
• Do not use aliases on columns that are identified
in the USING clause and listed elsewhere in the
SQL statement.

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 Using Table Aliases

• Use table aliases to simplify queries.

• Use table aliases to improve performance.
SELECT e.employee_id, e.last_name,
d.location_id, department_id
FROM employees e JOIN departments d
USING (department_id) ;

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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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 Self-Joins Using the ON Clause

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 e.last_name emp, m.last_name mgr

FROM employees e JOIN employees m
ON (e.manager_id = m.employee_id);

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 Applying Additional Conditions
to a Join

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 ;

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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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 Non-Equijoins

EMPLOYEES JOB_GRADES

Salary in the EMPLOYEES

table must be between
… lowest salary and highest
salary in the JOB_GRADES
table.

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 Retrieving Records
with Non-Equijoins

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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 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) tables 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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 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
• Non-equijoins
• Outer joins
• Self-joins
• Cross joins
• Natural joins
• Full (or two-sided) outer joins

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 Practice 5: Overview

This practice covers the following topics:

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

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