How can I implement SQL INTERSECT and MINUS operations in MS Access

Question

I have researched and haven\'t found a way to run INTERSECT and MINUS operations in MS Access. Does any way exist

Answer 1

INTERSECT is NOT an INNER JOIN. They're different. An INNER JOIN will give you duplicate rows in cases where INTERSECT WILL not. You can get equivalent results by:

SELECT DISTINCT a.*
FROM a
INNER JOIN b
   on a.PK = b.PK

Note that PK must be the primary key column or columns. If there is no PK on the table (BAD!), you must write it like so:

SELECT DISTINCT a.*
FROM a
INNER JOIN b
   ON  a.Col1 = b.Col1
   AND a.Col2 = b.Col2
   AND a.Col3 = b.Col3 ...

With MINUS, you can do the same thing, but with a LEFT JOIN, and a WHERE condition checking for null on one of table b's non-nullable columns (preferably the primary key).

SELECT DISTINCT a.*
FROM a
LEFT JOIN b
   on a.PK = b.PK
WHERE b.PK IS NULL

That should do it.