Union

Union operator +

The union operator is not yet implemented -- this page serves as the specification for the upcoming implementation. Union is rarely needed in practice.

The result of the union operator A + B contains all the tuples from both operands.

Principles of union

1. As in all operators, the order of the attributes in the operands is not significant.
2. Operands A and B must have the same primary key attributes. Otherwise, an error will be raised.
3. Operands A and B may not have any common non-key attributes. Otherwise, an error will be raised.
4. The result A + B will have the same primary key as A and B.
5. The result A + B will have all the non-key attributes from both A and B.
6. For tuples that are found in both a and b (based on the primary key), the non-key attributes will be filled from the corresponding tuples in A and B.
7. For tuples that are only found in either A or B, the other operands' non-key attributes will filled with NULLs.

Examples of union

Example 1 : Note that the order of the attributes does not matter.

Example 2 : Non-key attributes are combined from both relations and filled with NULLs when missing.

Properties of union

1. Commutative: A + B is equivalent to B + A.
2. Associative: (A + B) + C is equivalent to A + (B + C).