How to filter SQL results in a has-many-through relation

Question

Assuming I have the tables student, club, and student_club:

student {
    id
    name
}
club {
    id
    name
}
stude         


        

Answer 1

Different query plans in query 2) and 10)

I tested in a real life db, so the names differ from the catskin list. It's a backup copy, so nothing changed during all test runs (except minor changes to the catalogs).

Query 2)

SELECT a.*
FROM   ef.adr a
JOIN (
    SELECT adr_id
    FROM   ef.adratt
    WHERE  att_id IN (10,14)
    GROUP  BY adr_id
    HAVING COUNT(*) > 1) t using (adr_id);

Merge Join  (cost=630.10..1248.78 rows=627 width=295) (actual time=13.025..34.726 rows=67 loops=1)
  Merge Cond: (a.adr_id = adratt.adr_id)
  ->  Index Scan using adr_pkey on adr a  (cost=0.00..523.39 rows=5767 width=295) (actual time=0.023..11.308 rows=5356 loops=1)
  ->  Sort  (cost=630.10..636.37 rows=627 width=4) (actual time=12.891..13.004 rows=67 loops=1)
        Sort Key: adratt.adr_id
        Sort Method:  quicksort  Memory: 28kB
        ->  HashAggregate  (cost=450.87..488.49 rows=627 width=4) (actual time=12.386..12.710 rows=67 loops=1)
              Filter: (count(*) > 1)
              ->  Bitmap Heap Scan on adratt  (cost=97.66..394.81 rows=2803 width=4) (actual time=0.245..5.958 rows=2811 loops=1)
                    Recheck Cond: (att_id = ANY ('{10,14}'::integer[]))
                    ->  Bitmap Index Scan on adratt_att_id_idx  (cost=0.00..94.86 rows=2803 width=0) (actual time=0.217..0.217 rows=2811 loops=1)
                          Index Cond: (att_id = ANY ('{10,14}'::integer[]))
Total runtime: 34.928 ms

Query 10)

WITH two AS (
    SELECT adr_id
    FROM   ef.adratt
    WHERE  att_id IN (10,14)
    GROUP  BY adr_id
    HAVING COUNT(*) > 1
    )
SELECT a.*
FROM   ef.adr a
JOIN   two using (adr_id);

Hash Join  (cost=1161.52..1261.84 rows=627 width=295) (actual time=36.188..37.269 rows=67 loops=1)
  Hash Cond: (two.adr_id = a.adr_id)
  CTE two
    ->  HashAggregate  (cost=450.87..488.49 rows=627 width=4) (actual time=13.059..13.447 rows=67 loops=1)
          Filter: (count(*) > 1)
          ->  Bitmap Heap Scan on adratt  (cost=97.66..394.81 rows=2803 width=4) (actual time=0.252..6.252 rows=2811 loops=1)
                Recheck Cond: (att_id = ANY ('{10,14}'::integer[]))
                ->  Bitmap Index Scan on adratt_att_id_idx  (cost=0.00..94.86 rows=2803 width=0) (actual time=0.226..0.226 rows=2811 loops=1)
                      Index Cond: (att_id = ANY ('{10,14}'::integer[]))
  ->  CTE Scan on two  (cost=0.00..50.16 rows=627 width=4) (actual time=13.065..13.677 rows=67 loops=1)
  ->  Hash  (cost=384.68..384.68 rows=5767 width=295) (actual time=23.097..23.097 rows=5767 loops=1)
        Buckets: 1024  Batches: 1  Memory Usage: 1153kB
        ->  Seq Scan on adr a  (cost=0.00..384.68 rows=5767 width=295) (actual time=0.005..10.955 rows=5767 loops=1)
Total runtime: 37.482 ms

Answer 2

SELECT *
FROM   student
WHERE  id IN (SELECT student_id
              FROM   student_club
              WHERE  club_id = 30
              INTERSECT
              SELECT student_id
              FROM   student_club
              WHERE  club_id = 50)  

Or a more general solution easier to extend to n clubs and that avoids INTERSECT (not available in MySQL) and IN (as performance of this sucks in MySQL)

SELECT s.id,
       s.name
FROM   student s
       join student_club sc
         ON s.id = sc.student_id
WHERE  sc.club_id IN ( 30, 50 )
GROUP  BY s.id,
          s.name
HAVING COUNT(DISTINCT sc.club_id) = 2  

Answer 3

So there's more than one way to skin a cat.
I'll to add two more to make it, well, more complete.

1) GROUP first, JOIN later

Assuming a sane data model where (student_id, club_id) is unique in student_club. Martin Smith's second version is like somewhat similar, but he joins first, groups later. This should be faster:

SELECT s.id, s.name
  FROM student s
  JOIN (
   SELECT student_id
     FROM student_club
    WHERE club_id IN (30, 50)
    GROUP BY 1
   HAVING COUNT(*) > 1
       ) sc USING (student_id);

2) EXISTS

And of course, there is the classic EXISTS. Similar to Derek's variant with IN. Simple and fast. (In MySQL, this should be quite a bit faster than the variant with IN):

SELECT s.id, s.name
  FROM student s
 WHERE EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM student_club
               WHERE  student_id = s.student_id AND club_id = 30)
   AND EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM student_club
               WHERE  student_id = s.student_id AND club_id = 50);

Answer 4

@erwin-brandstetter Please, benchmark this:

SELECT s.stud_id, s.name
FROM   student s, student_club x, student_club y
WHERE  x.club_id = 30
AND    s.stud_id = x.stud_id
AND    y.club_id = 50
AND    s.stud_id = y.stud_id;

It's like number 6) by @sean , just cleaner, I guess.

Answer 5

-- EXPLAIN ANALYZE
WITH two AS (
    SELECT c0.student_id
    FROM tmp.student_club c0
    , tmp.student_club c1
    WHERE c0.student_id = c1.student_id
    AND c0.club_id = 30
    AND c1.club_id = 50
    )
SELECT st.* FROM tmp.student st
JOIN two ON (two.student_id=st.id)
    ;

The query plan:

 Hash Join  (cost=1904.76..1919.09 rows=337 width=15) (actual time=6.937..8.771 rows=324 loops=1)
   Hash Cond: (two.student_id = st.id)
   CTE two
     ->  Hash Join  (cost=849.97..1645.76 rows=337 width=4) (actual time=4.932..6.488 rows=324 loops=1)
           Hash Cond: (c1.student_id = c0.student_id)
           ->  Bitmap Heap Scan on student_club c1  (cost=32.76..796.94 rows=1614 width=4) (actual time=0.667..1.835 rows=1646 loops=1)
                 Recheck Cond: (club_id = 50)
                 ->  Bitmap Index Scan on sc_club_id_idx  (cost=0.00..32.36 rows=1614 width=0) (actual time=0.473..0.473 rows=1646 loops=1)                     
                       Index Cond: (club_id = 50)
           ->  Hash  (cost=797.00..797.00 rows=1617 width=4) (actual time=4.203..4.203 rows=1620 loops=1)
                 Buckets: 1024  Batches: 1  Memory Usage: 57kB
                 ->  Bitmap Heap Scan on student_club c0  (cost=32.79..797.00 rows=1617 width=4) (actual time=0.663..3.596 rows=1620 loops=1)                   
                       Recheck Cond: (club_id = 30)
                       ->  Bitmap Index Scan on sc_club_id_idx  (cost=0.00..32.38 rows=1617 width=0) (actual time=0.469..0.469 rows=1620 loops=1)
                             Index Cond: (club_id = 30)
   ->  CTE Scan on two  (cost=0.00..6.74 rows=337 width=4) (actual time=4.935..6.591 rows=324 loops=1)
   ->  Hash  (cost=159.00..159.00 rows=8000 width=15) (actual time=1.979..1.979 rows=8000 loops=1)
         Buckets: 1024  Batches: 1  Memory Usage: 374kB
         ->  Seq Scan on student st  (cost=0.00..159.00 rows=8000 width=15) (actual time=0.093..0.759 rows=8000 loops=1)
 Total runtime: 8.989 ms
(20 rows)

So it still seems to want the seq scan on student.

Answer 6

SELECT s.*
FROM student s
INNER JOIN student_club sc_soccer ON s.id = sc_soccer.student_id
INNER JOIN student_club sc_baseball ON s.id = sc_baseball.student_id
WHERE 
 sc_baseball.club_id = 50 AND 
 sc_soccer.club_id = 30