How to execute UNION without sorting? (SQL)
I notice this question gets quite a lot of views so I'll first address a question you didn't ask!
Regarding the title. To achieve a "Sql Union All with “distinct”" then simply replace UNION ALL
with UNION
. This has the effect of removing duplicates.
For your specific question, given the clarification "The first query should have "priority", so duplicates should be removed from bottom" you can use
SELECT col1,
col2,
MIN(grp) AS source_group
FROM (SELECT 1 AS grp,
col1,
col2
FROM t1
UNION ALL
SELECT 2 AS grp,
col1,
col2
FROM t2) AS t
GROUP BY col1,
col2
ORDER BY MIN(grp),
col1
"UNION also sort the final output" - only as an implementation artifact. It is by no means guaranteed to perform the sort, and if you need a particular sort order, you should specify it with an ORDER BY
clause. Otherwise, the output order is whatever is most convenient for the server to provide.
As such, your request for a function that performs a UNION ALL
but that removes duplicates is easy - it's called UNION
.
From your clarification, you also appear to believe that a UNION ALL
will return all of the results from the first query before the results of the subsequent queries. This is also not guaranteed. Again, the only way to achieve a particular order is to specify it using an ORDER BY
clause.