Question

Query:

select id from users where id in (1,2,3,4,5)

If the users table contains ids 1, 2, 3, this would return 1, 2, and 3. I want a query that would return 4 and 5. In other words, I don’t want the query to return any rows that exist in the table, I want to give it a list of numbers and get the values from that list that don’t appear in the table.

(updated to clarify question following several inapplicable answers)

Answer 1

Given the numbers are a fixed list. Quickest way I can think of is have a test table, populated with those numbers and do

untested select statement – but you will follow the princpal.

select test.number 
from test 
left join 
    users 
on 
    test.number = users.id 
where test.number <> users.id

Then you’ll get back all the numbers that dont have a matching user.id and so can fill in the holes..