SQL UNION and UNION ALL

UNION

The UNION command is used to select related information from two tables, much like the JOIN command. However, when using the UNION command all selected columns need to be of the same data type.

Note: With UNION, only distinct values are selected.

SQL Statement 1 UNION SQL Statement 2

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Employees_Norway:

E_ID	E_Name
01	Hansen, Ola
02	Svendson, Tove
03	Svendson, Stephen
04	Pettersen, Kari

Employees_USA:

E_ID	E_Name
01	Turner, Sally
02	Kent, Clark
03	Svendson, Stephen
04	Scott, Stephen

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Using the UNION Command

Example

List all different employee names in Norway and USA:

SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway UNION SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA

Result

E_Name
Hansen, Ola
Svendson, Tove
Svendson, Stephen
Pettersen, Kari
Turner, Sally
Kent, Clark
Scott, Stephen

Note: This command cannot be used to list all employees in Norway and USA. In the example above we have two employees with equal names, and only one of them is listed. The UNION command only selects distinct values.

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UNION ALL

The UNION ALL command is equal to the UNION command, except that UNION ALL selects all values.

SQL Statement 1 UNION ALL SQL Statement 2

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Using the UNION ALL Command

Example

List all employees in Norway and USA:

SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway UNION ALL SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA

Result

E_Name
Hansen, Ola
Svendson, Tove
Svendson, Stephen
Pettersen, Kari
Turner, Sally
Kent, Clark
Svendson, Stephen
Scott, Stephen