SQL query to find record with ID not in another table

Question

I have two tables with binding primary key in database and I desire to find a disjoint set between them. For example,

• Table1 has columns (ID

Answer 1

Use LEFT JOIN

SELECT  a.*
FROM    table1 a
            LEFT JOIN table2 b
                on a.ID = b.ID
WHERE   b.id IS NULL

Answer 2

Fast Alternative

I ran some tests (on postgres 9.5) using two tables with ~2M rows each. This query below performed at least 5* better than the other queries proposed:

-- Count
SELECT count(*) FROM (
    (SELECT id FROM table1) EXCEPT (SELECT id FROM table2)
) t1_not_in_t2;

-- Get full row
SELECT table1.* FROM (
    (SELECT id FROM table1) EXCEPT (SELECT id FROM table2)
) t1_not_in_t2 JOIN table1 ON t1_not_in_t2.id=table1.id;

Answer 3

SELECT COUNT(ID) FROM tblA a
WHERE a.ID NOT IN (SELECT b.ID FROM tblB b)    --For count


SELECT ID FROM tblA a
WHERE a.ID NOT IN (SELECT b.ID FROM tblB b)    --For results

Answer 4

Try this

SELECT ID, Name 
FROM   Table1 
WHERE  ID NOT IN (SELECT ID FROM Table2)

Answer 5

Keeping in mind the points made in @John Woo's comment/link above, this is how I typically would handle it:

SELECT t1.ID, t1.Name 
FROM   Table1 t1
WHERE  NOT EXISTS (
    SELECT TOP 1 NULL
    FROM Table2 t2
    WHERE t1.ID = t2.ID
)

Answer 6

There are basically 3 approaches to that: not exists, not in and left join / is null.

LEFT JOIN with IS NULL

SELECT  l.*
FROM    t_left l
LEFT JOIN
        t_right r
ON      r.value = l.value
WHERE   r.value IS NULL

NOT IN

SELECT  l.*
FROM    t_left l
WHERE   l.value NOT IN
        (
        SELECT  value
        FROM    t_right r
        )

NOT EXISTS

SELECT  l.*
FROM    t_left l
WHERE   NOT EXISTS
        (
        SELECT  NULL
        FROM    t_right r
        WHERE   r.value = l.value
        )

Which one is better? The answer to this question might be better to be broken down to major specific RDBMS vendors. Generally speaking, one should avoid using select ... where ... in (select...) when the magnitude of number of records in the sub-query is unknown. Some vendors might limit the size. Oracle, for example, has a limit of 1,000. Best thing to do is to try all three and show the execution plan.

Specifically form PostgreSQL, execution plan of NOT EXISTS and LEFT JOIN / IS NULL are the same. I personally prefer the NOT EXISTS option because it shows better the intent. After all the semantic is that you want to find records in A that its pk do not exist in B.

Old but still gold, specific to PostgreSQL though: https://explainextended.com/2009/09/16/not-in-vs-not-exists-vs-left-join-is-null-postgresql/