STATE OF THE UNION
The Library database does not offer us much reason to use UNION, but let's pretend that you want the full list of book titles and author names combined. Perhaps you want to create a master directory, in which you can look up a book either by its title or author, all in one list:
SELECT
books.bk_title AS title
FROM books
UNION
SELECT
authors.au_last_name
FROM authors
UNION does not establish a link, or a connection, between tables; it simply jams them together, one atop another. Note that the syntax of a UNION operation is different from that of a JOIN. UNION reflects the fact that tables are not connected, but merely “glued” together, as shown in Table 7-8.
TABLE 7-8: Result of a UNION Query
| TITLE |
| A Short History of Nearly Everything |
| After the Gold Rush: Creating a True Profession of Software Engineering |
| Bach |
| Bryson |
| Garrett |
| Gillenson |
| Heinlein |
| Hesse |
| Jonathan Livingston Seagull |
| Jones |
| Kriegel |
| Letters From Earth |
| McConnell |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Weekend Crash Course |
| Miller |
| Mindswap |
| Plew |
| Ponniah |
| Powell |
| Proust |
| A La Recherche du Temps Perdu |
| Sheckley |
| SQL Bible |
| SQL Functions: Programmers Reference |
| Stephens |
| Steppenwolf |
| Stranger in a Strange Land |
| Taylor |
| Trukhnov |
| Twain |
| Wiley Pathways: Introduction to Database Management |
Note that the book titles and the author names are all in the same single column of the resulting data set, and they are ordered alphabetically, without paying attention whence the ...
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