[SOLVED] efficient way to compare two tables in bigquery

efficient way to compare two tables in bigquery

I am interested in comparing, whether two tables contain the same data.

I could do it like this:

#standardSQL
SELECT
    key1, key2
FROM
(
    SELECT 
    table1.key1,
    table1.key2,
    table1.column1 - table2.column1 as col1,
    table1.col2 - table2.col2 as col2
    FROM
        `table1` AS table1
    LEFT JOIN
        `table2` AS table2
    ON
        table1.key1 = table2.key1
    AND
        table1.key2 = table2.key2
)
WHERE 
    col1 != 0
OR
    col2 != 0

But when I want to compare all numerical columns, this is kind of hard, especially if I want to do it for multiple table combinations.

Therefore my question: Is someone aware of a possibility to iterate over all numerical columns and restrict the result set to those keys where any of these differences where not zero?

Solution

First, I want to bring up issues with your original query

The main issues are 1) using LEFT JOIN ; 2) using col != 0

Below is how it should be modified to really capture ALL differences from both tables
Run your original query and below one - and hopefully you will see the difference

#standardSQL
SELECT key1, key2
FROM
(
    SELECT 
    IFNULL(table1.key1, table2.key1) key1,
    IFNULL(table1.key2, table2.key2) key2,
    table1.column1 - table2.column1 AS col1,
    table1.col2 - table2.col2 AS col2
    FROM `table1` AS table1
    FULL OUTER JOIN `table2` AS table2
    ON table1.key1 = table2.key1
    AND table1.key2 = table2.key2
)
WHERE IFNULL(col1, 1) != 0
OR    IFNULL(col2, 1) != 0

or you can just try to run your original and above version against dummy data to see the difference

#standardSQL
WITH `table1` AS (
  SELECT 1 key1, 1 key2, 1 column1, 2 col2 UNION ALL
  SELECT 2, 2, 3, 4 UNION ALL
  SELECT 3, 3, 5, 6
), `table2` AS (
  SELECT 1 key1, 1 key2, 1 column1, 29 col2 UNION ALL
  SELECT 2, 2, 3, 4 UNION ALL
  SELECT 4, 4, 7, 8
)
SELECT key1, key2
FROM
(
    SELECT 
    IFNULL(table1.key1, table2.key1) key1,
    IFNULL(table1.key2, table2.key2) key2,
    table1.column1 - table2.column1 AS col1,
    table1.col2 - table2.col2 AS col2
    FROM `table1` AS table1
    FULL OUTER JOIN `table2` AS table2
    ON table1.key1 = table2.key1
    AND table1.key2 = table2.key2
)
WHERE IFNULL(col1, 1) != 0
OR    IFNULL(col2, 1) != 0

Secondly, below will highly simplify your overall query

#standardSQL
SELECT 
  IFNULL(table1.key1, table2.key1) key1,
  IFNULL(table1.key2, table2.key2) key2
FROM `table1` AS table1
FULL OUTER JOIN `table2` AS table2
ON table1.key1 = table2.key1
AND table1.key2 = table2.key2
WHERE TO_JSON_STRING(table1) != TO_JSON_STRING(table2)

You can test it with the same dummy data example as above
Note: in this solution you don't need to pick specific columns - it just compare all columns! but if you need to compare only specific columns - you still will need to cherry-pick them like in below example

#standardSQL
SELECT 
  IFNULL(table1.key1, table2.key1) key1,
  IFNULL(table1.key2, table2.key2) key2
FROM `table1` AS table1
FULL OUTER JOIN `table2` AS table2
ON table1.key1 = table2.key1
AND table1.key2 = table2.key2
WHERE TO_JSON_STRING((table1.column1, table1.col2)) != TO_JSON_STRING((table2.column1, table2.col2))