Tutorials Point


  Learning MySQL
  MySQL Functions
  MySQL Useful Resources
  Selected Reading

© 2011 TutorialsPoint.COM


  Home     References     Discussion Forums     About TP  

MySQL UNION Keyword


previous AddThis Social Bookmark Button


You can use UNION if you want to select rows one after the other from several tables, or several sets of rows from a single table all as a single result set.

UNION is available as of MySQL 4.0.This section illustrates how to use it.

Suppose you have two tables that list prospective and actual customers, a third that lists vendors from whom you purchase supplies, and you want to create a single mailing list by merging names and addresses from all three tables. UNION provides a way to do this. Assume the three tables have the following contents:

mysql> SELECT * FROM prospect;
+---------+-------+------------------------+
| fname   | lname | addr                   |
+---------+-------+------------------------+
| Peter   | Jones | 482 Rush St., Apt. 402 |
| Bernice | Smith | 916 Maple Dr.          |
+---------+-------+------------------------+
mysql> SELECT * FROM customer;
+-----------+------------+---------------------+
| last_name | first_name | address             |
+-----------+------------+---------------------+
| Peterson  | Grace      | 16055 Seminole Ave. |
| Smith     | Bernice    | 916 Maple Dr.       |
| Brown     | Walter     | 8602 1st St.        |
+-----------+------------+---------------------+
mysql> SELECT * FROM vendor;
+-------------------+---------------------+
| company           | street              |
+-------------------+---------------------+
| ReddyParts, Inc.  | 38 Industrial Blvd. |
| Parts-to-go, Ltd. | 213B Commerce Park. |
+-------------------+---------------------+

It does not matter if all the three tables have different column names. The following query illustrates how to select names and addresses from the three tables all at once:

mysql> SELECT fname, lname, addr FROM prospect
-> UNION
-> SELECT first_name, last_name, address FROM customer
-> UNION
-> SELECT company, '', street FROM vendor;
+-------------------+----------+------------------------+
| fname             | lname    | addr                   |
+-------------------+----------+------------------------+
| Peter             | Jones    | 482 Rush St., Apt. 402 |
| Bernice           | Smith    | 916 Maple Dr.          |
| Grace             | Peterson | 16055 Seminole Ave.    |
| Walter            | Brown    | 8602 1st St.           |
| ReddyParts, Inc.  |          | 38 Industrial Blvd.    |
| Parts-to-go, Ltd. |          | 213B Commerce Park.    |
+-------------------+----------+------------------------+

If you want to select all records, including duplicates, follow the first UNION keyword with ALL:

mysql> SELECT fname, lname, addr FROM prospect
-> UNION ALL
-> SELECT first_name, last_name, address FROM customer
-> UNION
-> SELECT company, '', street FROM vendor;
+-------------------+----------+------------------------+
| fname             | lname    | addr                   |
+-------------------+----------+------------------------+
| Peter             | Jones    | 482 Rush St., Apt. 402 |
| Bernice           | Smith    | 916 Maple Dr.          |
| Grace             | Peterson | 16055 Seminole Ave.    |
| Bernice           | Smith    | 916 Maple Dr.          |
| Walter            | Brown    | 8602 1st St.           |
| ReddyParts, Inc.  |          | 38 Industrial Blvd.    |
| Parts-to-go, Ltd. |          | 213B Commerce Park.    |
+-------------------+----------+------------------------+

previous Printer Friendly



  

Advertisement

Online Image Processing

Indian Baby Names