Re: correlated delete with 'in' and 'left outer join' - Mailing list pgsql-general

Michael Chaney wrote:

> Please, before continuing this thread, read my post below.  What you're
> all getting around to, albeit painfully, is that this subquery is
> worthless as-is.  This is the mysql way of finding rows in one table
> with no match in another without the convenience of the "in" or "exists"
> constructs.
>
> Because we're using Postgres and have those constructs, the original
> query can be rewritten simply with either:
>
> delete from LogEvent where EventType != 'i' and ItemID not in
>         (select ItemID from Item)
>
> That's it.  That's the whole query.  It does what he wants.

One more minor point. :-)

If you are using 7.3 or earlier, PostgreSQL will sequentially scan
the IN subquery result, which executes quite slowly and therefore
the EXISTS method Stephan stated should be used:

DELETE FROM LogEvent
WHERE EventType != 'i' AND NOT EXISTS (
  SELECT 1
  FROM Item
  WHERE Item.ItemID = LogEvent.ItemID
);

If you are using >= 7.4, then your query above is optimal:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.4/static/release.html#RELEASE-7-4

Just something to consider,

Mike Mascari

>
> Michael