How do I 'subtract' sql tables?

Question

Its not really a subtraction I\'m looking for. And I know its not a union or intersection... I have been given a long and complex stored procedure that returns a table of

Answer 1

You can also do this with the NOT IN clause

For example, assuming the stored procedures have given you table variables called @AllDocuments and @ActiveDocuments and each document has an identifier column called DocId

SELECT * FROM @AllDocuments 
WHERE DocId NOT IN 
    (SELECT DocId FROM @ActiveDocuments)

Adapt this as appropriate to match your table / column names.