Queries with EXISTS

Data-Driven Decision Making in SQL

Irene Ortner

Data Scientist at Applied Statistics

EXISTS

Special case of a correlated nested query.
Used to check if result of a correlated nested query is empty.
It returns: TRUE or FALSE
TRUE = not empty -> row of the outer query is selected.
FALSE = empty
Columns specified in SELECT component not considered - use SELECT *

Movies with at least one rating

SELECT *
FROM movies AS m
WHERE EXISTS
    (SELECT *
     FROM renting AS r
     WHERE rating IS NOT NULL 
     AND r.movie_id = m.movie_id);

Movies with at least one rating

SELECT *
FROM renting AS r
WHERE rating IS NOT NULL 
AND r.movie_id = 11;

| renting_id | customer_id | movie_id | rating | renting_price |
|------- ----|-------------|----------|--------|---------------|

Movies with at least one rating

SELECT *
FROM renting AS r
WHERE rating IS NOT NULL 
AND r.movie_id = 1;

| renting_id | customer_id | movie_id | rating | renting_price |
|------------|-------------|----------|--------|---------------|
| 71         | 111         | 1        | 5      | 2018-07-21    |
| 170        | 36          | 1        | 10     | 2018-10-18    |

EXISTS query with result

SELECT *
FROM movies AS m
WHERE EXISTS
    (SELECT *
     FROM renting AS r
     WHERE rating IS NOT NULL 
     AND r.movie_id = m.movie_id);

| movie_id | title                 | genre  | runtime | year_of_release | renting_price |
|----------|-----------------------|--------|---------|-----------------|---------------|
| 1        | One Night at McCool's | Comedy | 93      | 2001            | 2.09          |
| 2        | Swordfish             | Drama  | 99      | 2001            | 2.19          |

NOT EXISTS

TRUE = table is empty -> row of the outer query is selected.

SELECT *
FROM movies AS m
WHERE NOT EXISTS
    (SELECT *
     FROM renting AS r
     WHERE rating IS NOT NULL 
     AND r.movie_id = m.movie_id);

| movie_id | title    | genre  | runtime | year_of_release | renting_price |
|----------|----------|--------|---------|-----------------|---------------|
| 11       | Showtime | Comedy | 95      | 2002            | 1.79          |

Let's practice!

Data-Driven Decision Making in SQL