SQL - SELF JOINS

The SQL SELF JOIN is used to join a table to itself, as if the table were two tables, temporarily renaming at least one table in the SQL statement.

Syntax: +Sql School +SQL Programmers +SQL Sentry

The basic syntax of SELF JOIN is as follows:

SELECT a.column_name, b.column_name...
FROM table1 a, table1 b
WHERE a.common_filed = b.common_field;

Here WHERE clause could be any given expression based on your requirement.

Example:

Consider following two tables, (a) CUSTOMERS table is as follows:

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| ID | NAME     | AGE | ADDRESS   | SALARY   |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
|  1 | Ramesh   |  32 | Ahmedabad |  2000.00 |
|  2 | Khilan   |  25 | Delhi     |  1500.00 |
|  3 | kaushik  |  23 | Kota      |  2000.00 |
|  4 | Chaitali |  25 | Mumbai    |  6500.00 |
|  5 | Hardik   |  27 | Bhopal    |  8500.00 |
|  6 | Komal    |  22 | MP        |  4500.00 |
|  7 | Muffy    |  24 | Indore    | 10000.00 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

Now let us join this table using SELF JOIN as follows:

SQL> SELECT  a.ID, b.NAME, a.SALARY
     FROM CUSTOMERS a, CUSTOMERS b
     WHERE a.SALARY < b.SALARY;

This would produce following result:

+----+----------+---------+
| ID | NAME     | SALARY  |
+----+----------+---------+
|  2 | Ramesh   | 1500.00 |
|  2 | kaushik  | 1500.00 |
|  1 | Chaitali | 2000.00 |
|  2 | Chaitali | 1500.00 |
|  3 | Chaitali | 2000.00 |
|  6 | Chaitali | 4500.00 |
|  1 | Hardik   | 2000.00 |
|  2 | Hardik   | 1500.00 |
|  3 | Hardik   | 2000.00 |
|  4 | Hardik   | 6500.00 |
|  6 | Hardik   | 4500.00 |
|  1 | Komal    | 2000.00 |
|  2 | Komal    | 1500.00 |
|  3 | Komal    | 2000.00 |
|  1 | Muffy    | 2000.00 |
|  2 | Muffy    | 1500.00 |
|  3 | Muffy    | 2000.00 |
|  4 | Muffy    | 6500.00 |
|  5 | Muffy    | 8500.00 |
|  6 | Muffy    | 4500.00 |
+----+----------+---------+