CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sqlsql-serveroracle-databaseexists
anonxen
anonxen

Reputation: 824

Exists / not exists: 'select 1' vs 'select field'

Which one of the two would perform better(I was recently accused of not being careful with my code because I used the later in Oracle):

Select * 
from Tab1
Where (not) exists(Select 1 From Tab2 Where Tab1.id = Tab2.id)


Select * 
from Tab1
Where (not) exists(Select Field1 From Tab2 Where Tab1.id = Tab2.id)

Or are they both same?

Please answer both from SQL Server perspective as well as Oracle perspective.

I have googled (mostly from sql-server side) and found that there is still a lot of debate over this although my present opinion/assumption is the optimiser in both the RDMBS are mature enough to understand that all that is required from the subquery is a Boolean value.

Upvotes: 24

Views: 44885

Answers (4)

0xdb
0xdb

Reputation: 3697

The expression in the subquery's column list matters absolutely nothing, it will not even be executed:

select * from dual t1
where exists (
    select 1/0 from dual t2
         --^^^ division by 0  
    where t2.dummy = t2.dummy)
/

DUMMY
--------
X

Upvotes: 3

Matthew Sidorick
Matthew Sidorick

Reputation: 71

The only thing to watch out for in my experience between using "EXISTS(SELECT * ..." and "EXISTS(SELECT 1 ..." is that "*" is not allowed in schema-bound objects -- it will throw:

Syntax '*' is not allowed in schema-bound objects.

Upvotes: 2

TheGameiswar
TheGameiswar

Reputation: 28900

I know this is old,but want to add few points i observed recently..

Even though exists checks for only existence ,when we write "select *" all ,columns will be expanded,other than this slight overhead ,there are no differences.

Source:
http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/conor/exists-subqueries-select-1-vs-select/

Update:
Article i referred seems to be not valid.Even though when we write,select 1 ,SQLServer will expand all the columns ..

please refer to below link for in depth analysis and performance statistics,when using various approaches..

Subquery using Exists 1 or Exists *

Upvotes: 6

Patrick Hofman
Patrick Hofman

Reputation: 156988

Yes, they are the same. exists checks if there is at least one row in the sub query. If so, it evaluates to true. The columns in the sub query don't matter in any way.

According to MSDN, exists:

Specifies a subquery to test for the existence of rows.

And Oracle:

An EXISTS condition tests for existence of rows in a subquery.

Maybe the MySQL documentation is even more explaining:

Traditionally, an EXISTS subquery starts with SELECT *, but it could begin with SELECT 5 or SELECT column1 or anything at all. MySQL ignores the SELECT list in such a subquery, so it makes no difference.

Upvotes: 27

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