Alternative to Intersect in MySQL

Microsoft SQL Server’s INTERSECT “returns any distinct values that are returned by both the query on the left and right sides of the INTERSECT operand” This is different from a standard INNER JOIN or WHERE EXISTS query.

SQL Server

CREATE TABLE table_a (
    id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    value VARCHAR(255)
);

CREATE TABLE table_b (
    id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    value VARCHAR(255)
);

INSERT INTO table_a VALUES (1, 'A'), (2, 'B'), (3, 'B');
INSERT INTO table_b VALUES (1, 'B');

SELECT value FROM table_a
INTERSECT
SELECT value FROM table_b

value
-----
B

(1 rows affected)

MySQL

CREATE TABLE `table_a` (
  `id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `value` varchar(255),
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;

CREATE TABLE `table_b` LIKE `table_a`;

INSERT INTO table_a VALUES (1, 'A'), (2, 'B'), (3, 'B');
INSERT INTO table_b VALUES (1, 'B');

SELECT value FROM table_a
INNER JOIN table_b
USING (value);

+-------+
| value |
+-------+
| B     |
| B     |
+-------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

SELECT value FROM table_a
WHERE (value) IN
(SELECT value FROM table_b);

+-------+
| value |
+-------+
| B     |
| B     |
+-------+

With this particular question, the id column is involved, so duplicate values will not be returned, but for the sake of completeness, here’s a MySQL alternative using INNER JOIN and DISTINCT:

SELECT DISTINCT value FROM table_a
INNER JOIN table_b
USING (value);

+-------+
| value |
+-------+
| B     |
+-------+

And another example using WHERE ... IN and DISTINCT:

SELECT DISTINCT value FROM table_a
WHERE (value) IN
(SELECT value FROM table_b);

+-------+
| value |
+-------+
| B     |
+-------+