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>PostgreSQL 7.3.2 Documentation</TH
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>Chapter 4. Queries</TD
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><A
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>4.4. Combining Queries</A
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><P
>   The results of two queries can be combined using the set operations
   union, intersection, and difference.  The syntax is
</P><PRE
CLASS="SYNOPSIS"
><TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query1</I
></TT
> UNION [<SPAN
CLASS="OPTIONAL"
>ALL</SPAN
>] <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query2</I
></TT
>
<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query1</I
></TT
> INTERSECT [<SPAN
CLASS="OPTIONAL"
>ALL</SPAN
>] <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query2</I
></TT
>
<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query1</I
></TT
> EXCEPT [<SPAN
CLASS="OPTIONAL"
>ALL</SPAN
>] <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query2</I
></TT
></PRE
><P>
   <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query1</I
></TT
> and
   <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query2</I
></TT
> are queries that can use any of
   the features discussed up to this point.  Set operations can also
   be nested and chained, for example
</P><PRE
CLASS="SYNOPSIS"
><TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query1</I
></TT
> UNION <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query2</I
></TT
> UNION <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query3</I
></TT
></PRE
><P>
   which really says
</P><PRE
CLASS="SYNOPSIS"
>(<TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query1</I
></TT
> UNION <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query2</I
></TT
>) UNION <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query3</I
></TT
></PRE
><P>
  </P
><P
>   <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>UNION</TT
> effectively appends the result of
   <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query2</I
></TT
> to the result of
   <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query1</I
></TT
> (although there is no guarantee
   that this is the order in which the rows are actually returned).
   Furthermore, it eliminates all duplicate rows, in the sense of
   <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>DISTINCT</TT
>, unless <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>UNION ALL</TT
> is used.
  </P
><P
>   <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>INTERSECT</TT
> returns all rows that are both in the result
   of <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query1</I
></TT
> and in the result of
   <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query2</I
></TT
>.  Duplicate rows are eliminated
   unless <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>INTERSECT ALL</TT
> is used.
  </P
><P
>   <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>EXCEPT</TT
> returns all rows that are in the result of
   <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query1</I
></TT
> but not in the result of
   <TT
CLASS="REPLACEABLE"
><I
>query2</I
></TT
>.  (This is sometimes called the
   <I
CLASS="FIRSTTERM"
>difference</I
> between two queries.)  Again, duplicates
   are eliminated unless <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>EXCEPT ALL</TT
> is used.
  </P
><P
>   In order to calculate the union, intersection, or difference of two
   queries, the two queries must be <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"union compatible"</SPAN
>,
   which means that they both return the same number of columns, and
   that the corresponding columns have compatible data types, as
   described in <A
HREF="typeconv-union-case.html"
>Section 7.5</A
>.
  </P
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