Can SQL calculate aggregate functions across multiple tables?

Question

Let\'s say I have two existing tables, \"dogs\" and \"cats\":

 dog_name | owner
 ---------+------
 Sparky   | Bob
 Rover    | Bob
 Snoopy   | Chuck
 Odie             


        

Answer 1

In T-SQL for SQL Server 2005 (replace the CTE with an inline subquery if not):

WITH ownership AS (
    SELECT owner, COUNT(dog_name) AS num_dogs, 0 AS num_cats -- counts all non-NULL dog_name
    FROM dogs
    GROUP BY owner

    UNION

    SELECT owner, 0 AS num_dogs, COUNT(cat_name) as num_cats -- counts all non-NULL cat_name
    FROM cats
    GROUP BY owner
)
SELECT ownership.owner
    ,SUM(ownership.num_dogs) AS num_dogs
    ,SUM(ownership.num_cats) as num_cats
FROM ownership
GROUP BY ownership.owner