select a value where it doesn't exist in another table

Question

I have two tables

Table A:

ID
1
2
3
4

Table B:

ID
1
2
3

I have two requests:

• I want to

Answer 1

For your first question there are at least three common methods to choose from:

• NOT EXISTS
• NOT IN
• LEFT JOIN

The SQL looks like this:

SELECT * FROM TableA WHERE NOT EXISTS (
    SELECT NULL
    FROM TableB
    WHERE TableB.ID = TableA.ID
)

SELECT * FROM TableA WHERE ID NOT IN (
    SELECT ID FROM TableB
)

SELECT TableA.* FROM TableA 
LEFT JOIN TableB
ON TableA.ID = TableB.ID
WHERE TableB.ID IS NULL

Depending on which database you are using, the performance of each can vary. For SQL Server (not nullable columns):

NOT EXISTS and NOT IN predicates are the best way to search for missing values, as long as both columns in question are NOT NULL.