MINUS in Oracle

ORACLE MINUS To return all the rows of the first SELECT statement which are not common to the rows of the second SELECT statement, the Oracle MINUS operator is used. After the subtraction process, the MINUS operator returns the uncommon or unique records from the corresponding rows of the first SELECT statement.

There are however two mandatory conditions for using the MINUS operator in Oracle.

• Each SELECT statement must have the same number of expressions.
• Each corresponding expression in the different SELECT statement should be of the same data type.

Syntax:

SELECT expr_1, expr_2, ... expr_n  
FROM table1  
WHERE conditions  
MINUS  
SELECT expr_1, expr_2, ... expr_n  
FROM table2  
WHERE conditions;   

Parameters:

expr_1, expr_2, … expr_n: It is used to specify the columns of the table which needs to be retrieved. table1, table2: It is used to specify the name of the tables from which the records need to be retrieved. conditions: It is used to specify the conditions to be strictly followed for selection.

Example 1: Fetching single field from two tables. Students Table:

Teachers Table:

Query:

SELECT name  
FROM students
MINUS  
SELECT name 
FROM teachers;

Output:

NAME
Joy
Smiley
Happy

Explanation: The ‘students’ and the ‘teachers’ are the already existing tables. After the subtraction, the uncommon or unique rows for the ‘name’ field from the ‘students’ table would appear.

Example 2: Fetching multiple fields from two tables. Students Table:

Teachers Table:

Query:

SELECT name, age
FROM students
MINUS  
SELECT name, age
FROM teachers;

Output:

Explanation: The ‘students’ and the ‘teachers’ are the already existing tables. After the subtraction, the uncommon or unique rows for the ‘name’ and the ‘age’ fields from the ‘students’ table would appear.

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