Help in Understanding a SQL Query

Hi guys,

Can you please help me understand this query 
SELECT  Point.STAsText() AS Wkt
	FROM AddressSearchString AS S
    WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 42
					FROM [PhysicalSpace].[LocationShapes]
                    WHERE S.Point.STDistance(ShapeData) < 3.0 AND [IsPoint] = 1)
	GROUP BY Point.STAsText()

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What does Select 42 means?

regards
Ali ShahSQL DeveloperAsked:
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Vitor MontalvãoConnect With a Mentor MSSQL Senior EngineerCommented:
Humm, maybe I was too fast. Those functions are Geography functions and then this might make sense so ignore my last comment, please.
What that query is doing is returning all records where the distance is greater than 3.0 (I'm not sure which metric system is being used here so can be miles or kms or even meters).
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Vitor MontalvãoConnect With a Mentor MSSQL Senior EngineerCommented:
What does Select 42 means?
That's a constant. It could be anything since what's being returned by that SELECT doesn't have any effect on the main SELECT (you aren't comparing columns there).
Typically you'll see there a NULL, * or 1 but 42 is somehow odd but has the same purpose.
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Pawan KumarConnect With a Mentor Database ExpertCommented:
42 is just a constant , you can put any value there. Normally people put 1 there. Exists just checks whether you are returning any row. So for any row we can return any value which is a constant value.

Now if you return column values then that might slow the performance of the query and the engine has to return data from the table to the outer query.

So constant inside of a exists clause help as we are not returning  the column values, Engine work a bit less..:)

SELECT  Point.STAsText() AS Wkt
	FROM AddressSearchString AS S
    WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 42
					FROM [PhysicalSpace].[LocationShapes]
                    WHERE S.Point.STDistance(ShapeData) < 3.0 AND [IsPoint] = 1)
	GROUP BY Point.STAsText()

Open in new window


Hope it helps !
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Ali ShahSQL DeveloperAuthor Commented:
Does this mean that there is no purpose of subquery here as it will always return null as 42 doesn't exist in the subquery table?
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Pawan KumarDatabase ExpertCommented:
No there is purpose , It is used in the where clause. In this case we need to take results where we should NOT have any rows from the Inner query.
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Vitor MontalvãoMSSQL Senior EngineerCommented:
To be honest all query seems very odd to me. You have 2 tables and there's no apparent connection between them.
Is the following query returning the same rows as the original one?
SELECT  Point.STAsText() AS Wkt
FROM AddressSearchString AS S
WHERE S.Point.STDistance(ShapeData) < 3.0 
GROUP BY Point.STAsText()

Open in new window

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Ali ShahSQL DeveloperAuthor Commented:
Thanks Vitor and Pawan. it explains it all. Learning very quickly with the help of you guys.

thanks again
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