INTERSECT Clause

The INTERSECT clause returns only those rows that result from both the first and the second queries. The queries must match the number of columns, order, and type. The result of INTERSECT can contain duplicate rows.

Multiple INTERSECT statements are executed left to right if parentheses are not specified. The INTERSECT operator has a higher priority than the UNION and EXCEPT clauses.

SELECT column1 [, column2 ]
FROM table1
[WHERE condition]

INTERSECT

SELECT column1 [, column2 ]
FROM table2
[WHERE condition]

The condition could be any expression based on your requirements.

Examples

Here is a simple example that intersects the numbers 1 to 10 with the numbers 3 to 8:

SELECT number FROM numbers(1,10) INTERSECT SELECT number FROM numbers(3,8);

Result:

┌─number─┐
│      3 │
│      4 │
│      5 │
│      6 │
│      7 │
│      8 │
└────────┘

INTERSECT is useful if you have two tables that share a common column (or columns). You can intersect the results of two queries, as long as the results contain the same columns. For example, suppose we have a few million rows of historical cryptocurrency data that contains trade prices and volume:

CREATE TABLE crypto_prices
(
    trade_date Date,
    crypto_name String,
    volume Float32,
    price Float32,
    market_cap Float32,
    change_1_day Float32
)
ENGINE = MergeTree
PRIMARY KEY (crypto_name, trade_date);

INSERT INTO crypto_prices
   SELECT *
   FROM s3(
    'https://learn-clickhouse.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/crypto_prices.csv',
    'CSVWithNames'
);

SELECT * FROM crypto_prices
WHERE crypto_name = 'Bitcoin'
ORDER BY trade_date DESC
LIMIT 10;

┌─trade_date─┬─crypto_name─┬──────volume─┬────price─┬───market_cap─┬──change_1_day─┐
│ 2020-11-02 │ Bitcoin     │ 30771456000 │ 13550.49 │ 251119860000 │  -0.013585099 │
│ 2020-11-01 │ Bitcoin     │ 24453857000 │ 13737.11 │ 254569760000 │ -0.0031840964 │
│ 2020-10-31 │ Bitcoin     │ 30306464000 │ 13780.99 │ 255372070000 │   0.017308505 │
│ 2020-10-30 │ Bitcoin     │ 30581486000 │ 13546.52 │ 251018150000 │   0.008084608 │
│ 2020-10-29 │ Bitcoin     │ 56499500000 │ 13437.88 │ 248995320000 │   0.012552661 │
│ 2020-10-28 │ Bitcoin     │ 35867320000 │ 13271.29 │ 245899820000 │   -0.02804481 │
│ 2020-10-27 │ Bitcoin     │ 33749879000 │ 13654.22 │ 252985950000 │    0.04427984 │
│ 2020-10-26 │ Bitcoin     │ 29461459000 │ 13075.25 │ 242251000000 │  0.0033826586 │
│ 2020-10-25 │ Bitcoin     │ 24406921000 │ 13031.17 │ 241425220000 │ -0.0058658565 │
│ 2020-10-24 │ Bitcoin     │ 24542319000 │ 13108.06 │ 242839880000 │   0.013650347 │
└────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴──────────┴──────────────┴───────────────┘

Now suppose we have a table named holdings that contains a list of cryptocurrencies that we own, along with the number of coins:

CREATE TABLE holdings
(
    crypto_name String,
    quantity UInt64
)
ENGINE = MergeTree
PRIMARY KEY (crypto_name);

INSERT INTO holdings VALUES
   ('Bitcoin', 1000),
   ('Bitcoin', 200),
   ('Ethereum', 250),
   ('Ethereum', 5000),
   ('DOGEFI', 10);
   ('Bitcoin Diamond', 5000);

We can use INTERSECT to answer questions like "Which coins do we own that have traded at a price greater than $100?":

SELECT crypto_name FROM holdings
INTERSECT
SELECT crypto_name FROM crypto_prices
WHERE price > 100

Result:

┌─crypto_name─┐
│ Bitcoin     │
│ Bitcoin     │
│ Ethereum    │
│ Ethereum    │
└─────────────┘

This means at some point in time, Bitcoin and Ethereum traded above $100, and DOGEFI and Bitcoin Diamond have never traded above $100 (at least using the data we have here in this example).

INTERSECT DISTINCT

Notice in the previous query we had multiple Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings that traded above $100. It might be nice to remove duplicate rows (since they only repeat what we already know). You can add DISTINCT to INTERSECT to eliminate duplicate rows from the result:

SELECT crypto_name FROM holdings
INTERSECT DISTINCT
SELECT crypto_name FROM crypto_prices
WHERE price > 100;

Result:

┌─crypto_name─┐
│ Bitcoin     │
│ Ethereum    │
└─────────────┘

See Also

• UNION
• EXCEPT