Tsql – T-SQL: Selecting rows to delete via joins

join;tsql

Scenario:

Let's say I have two tables, TableA and TableB. TableB's primary key is a single column (BId), and is a foreign key column in TableA.

In my situation, I want to remove all rows in TableA that are linked with specific rows in TableB: Can I do that through joins? Delete all rows that are pulled in from the joins?

DELETE FROM TableA 
FROM
   TableA a
   INNER JOIN TableB b
      ON b.BId = a.BId
      AND [my filter condition]

Or am I forced to do this:

DELETE FROM TableA
WHERE
   BId IN (SELECT BId FROM TableB WHERE [my filter condition])

The reason I ask is it seems to me that the first option would be much more effecient when dealing with larger tables.

Thanks!

Best Answer

DELETE TableA
FROM   TableA a
       INNER JOIN TableB b
               ON b.Bid = a.Bid
                  AND [my filter condition]

should work

Related Solutions

Sql-server – How to remove duplicate rows

Assuming no nulls, you GROUP BY the unique columns, and SELECT the MIN (or MAX) RowId as the row to keep. Then, just delete everything that didn't have a row id:

DELETE FROM MyTable
LEFT OUTER JOIN (
   SELECT MIN(RowId) as RowId, Col1, Col2, Col3 
   FROM MyTable 
   GROUP BY Col1, Col2, Col3
) as KeepRows ON
   MyTable.RowId = KeepRows.RowId
WHERE
   KeepRows.RowId IS NULL

In case you have a GUID instead of an integer, you can replace

MIN(RowId)

with

CONVERT(uniqueidentifier, MIN(CONVERT(char(36), MyGuidColumn)))

Sql – How to perform an IF…THEN in an SQL SELECT

The CASE statement is the closest to IF in SQL and is supported on all versions of SQL Server.

SELECT CAST(
             CASE
                  WHEN Obsolete = 'N' or InStock = 'Y'
                     THEN 1
                  ELSE 0
             END AS bit) as Saleable, *
FROM Product

You only need to use the CAST operator if you want the result as a Boolean value. If you are happy with an int, this works:

SELECT CASE
            WHEN Obsolete = 'N' or InStock = 'Y'
               THEN 1
               ELSE 0
       END as Saleable, *
FROM Product

CASE statements can be embedded in other CASE statements and even included in aggregates.

SQL Server Denali (SQL Server 2012) adds the IIF statement which is also available in access (pointed out by Martin Smith):

SELECT IIF(Obsolete = 'N' or InStock = 'Y', 1, 0) as Saleable, * FROM Product

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Sql-server – How to remove duplicate rows

Sql – How to perform an IF…THEN in an SQL SELECT

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