java的exists_EXISTS and NOT EXISTS

EXISTS and NOT EXISTS

If a subquery returns any values at all, then EXISTS is TRUE, and NOT EXISTS is FALSE. For example:

SELECT column1 FROM t1 WHERE EXISTS (SELECT * FROM t2);

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 doesn't matter.

For the above example, if t2 contains any rows, even rows with nothing but NULL values, then the EXISTS condition is TRUE. This is actually an unlikely example, since almost always a [NOT] EXISTS subquery will contain correlations. Here are some more realistic examples.

Example: What kind of store is present in one or more cities?

SELECT DISTINCT store_type FROM Stores

WHERE EXISTS (SELECT * FROM Cities_Stores

WHERE Cities_Stores.store_type = Stores.store_type);

Example: What kind of store is present in no cities?

SELECT DISTINCT store_type FROM Stores

WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM Cities_Stores

WHERE Cities_Stores.store_type = Stores.store_type);

Example: What kind of store is present in all cities?

SELECT DISTINCT store_type FROM Stores S1

WHERE NOT EXISTS (

SELECT * FROM Cities WHERE NOT EXISTS (

SELECT * FROM Cities_Stores

WHERE Cities_Stores.city = Cities.city

AND Cities_Stores.store_type = Stores.store_type));

The last example is a double-nested NOT EXISTS query -- it has a NOT EXISTS clause within a NOT EXISTS clause. Formally, it answers the question ``does a city exist with a store which is not in Stores?''. But it's easier to say that a nested NOT EXISTS answers the question ``is x TRUE for all y?''.