Again depending on the database it is often better to use a temporary
table and inner joins.  e.g. for SQL Server:

CREATE TABLE #tmp (CoID chr(3), DocketNo int)

INSERT INTO #tmp  -- Select all keys
SELECT CoID, DocketNo 
FROM DocketNos

DELETE FROM t     -- This leaves only the keys to delete 
FROM #tmp t, Dockets d
WHERE t.CoID = d.CoId
AND t.DocketNo = d.DocketNo

DELETE FROM n     -- Do the delete
FROM DocketNos n, #tmp t
WHERE n.CoID = t.CoId
AND n.DocketNo = t.DocketNo

Doing this changed a job using NOT EXISTS from 3 days to 3 seconds.  We
were working on tables with 20 million rows, but the same principle
applies.

HTH

Stephen

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of Kyley Harris
Sent: Friday, 1 October 2004 2:10 p.m.
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List
Subject: Re: [DUG] SQL Problem

Syntax may not be exactly right, depending on the database but

DELETE FROM DocketNos n where not Exist (select d.coid from Dockets d 
where d.CoID = n.coID and d.Dockeno = n.DocketNo)

Mark Howard wrote:

> Hi
>
> I'm wanting to delete rows from one table, DocketNos, where 
> corresponding  rows do not exist in a second table., Dockets.
> The tables are linked via a composite key made up of
> CoID Char(3) and
> DocketNo  Integer
>
> I'm trying the following SQL (using DBISAM)
>
> Delete from DocketNos n where
>   n.CoID||cast(n.DocketNo as Char(8)) not in
>     (select d.CoID||cast(d.DocketNo as Char(8)) from Dockets d)
>
> When I run this, I don't get any errors but it just goes away and 
> never  comes back to me.
>
> Can anyone see if there is a problem with this or is there maybe a 
> better  way to do it?  There are perhaps 50,000 rows in
> each table.
>
> TIA
>
> Mark
>  --
> Forest Production Systems Ltd
> Creators of PSLog - A harvesting information system
> www.pslog.co.nz
> _______________________________________________
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