Question

I have this query:

SELECT Items.Name, tblBooks.AuthorLastName, tblBooks.AuthorFirstName
FROM Items WHERE Items.ProductCode IN (
SELECT TOP 10 Recommended.ProductCode
FROM 
Recommended 
INNER JOIN Stock ON Recomended.ProductCode = Stock.ProductCode
AND Stock.StatusCode = 1
WHERE (Recommended.Type = 'TOPICAL') ORDER BY CHECKSUM(NEWID()));

It is fine for my data, except that the Recommended table has a SKU field I need also however I cannot put it next to Recommended.ProductCode and have the query still work.
I have used JOINS for this query and these work – but this query runs faster I just need the ProductCode and SKU from the Recommended table – how can this be done without needing yet another sub query?
Database: MS SQL Server 2000

Answer 1

The subquery seems to be picking 10 random recommendations. I think you can do that without a subquery:

SELECT TOP 10
    Items.*,
    Recommended.*,
    Stock.*
FROM Items 
INNER JOIN Recommended 
    ON Items.ProductCode = Recommended.ProductCode
    AND Recommended.Type = 'TOPICAL'
INNER JOIN Stock 
    ON Recomended.ProductCode = Stock.ProductCode
    AND Stock.StatusCode = 1
ORDER BY CHECKSUM(NEWID())

This gives you access to all columns, without having to pass them up from the subquery.