Select from one table where not in another

I'm trying to find the rows that are in one table but not another, both tables are in different databases and also have different column names on the column that I'm using to match.

I've got a query, code below, and I think it probably works but it's way too slow:

SELECT `pm`.`id`
FROM `R2R`.`partmaster` `pm`
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
    SELECT * 
    FROM `wpsapi4`.`product_details` `pd`
    WHERE `pm`.`id` = `pd`.`part_num`
)

So the query is trying to do as follows:

Select all the ids from the R2R.partmaster database that are not in the wpsapi4.product_details database. The columns I'm matching are partmaster.id & product_details.part_num

Solution 1:

Expanding on Sjoerd's anti-join, you can also use the easy to understand SELECT WHERE X NOT IN (SELECT) pattern.

SELECT pm.id FROM r2r.partmaster pm
WHERE pm.id NOT IN (SELECT pd.part_num FROM wpsapi4.product_details pd)

Note that you only need to use ` backticks on reserved words, names with spaces and such, not with normal column names.

On MySQL 5+ this kind of query runs pretty fast.
On MySQL 3/4 it's slow.

Make sure you have indexes on the fields in question
You need to have an index on pm.id, pd.part_num.

Solution 2:

You can LEFT JOIN the two tables. If there is no corresponding row in the second table, the values will be NULL.

SELECT id FROM partmaster LEFT JOIN product_details ON (...) WHERE product_details.part_num IS NULL

Solution 3:

To expand on Johan's answer, if the part_num column in the sub-select can contain null values then the query will break.

To correct this, add a null check...

SELECT pm.id FROM r2r.partmaster pm
WHERE pm.id NOT IN 
      (SELECT pd.part_num FROM wpsapi4.product_details pd 
                  where pd.part_num is not null)

• Sorry but I couldn't add a comment as I don't have the rep!