SQL with Manoj

UNION and UNION ALL are used to combine data or record sets from two different tables. One could combine more than 2 tables. Just like JOINS, UNION combines data into a single record-set but vertically by adding rows from another table. JOINS combine data horizontally by adding columns from another table.

UNION insures you get DISTINCT records from both the tables.
UNION ALL pulls out all records from both the tables with duplicates.

Generally “UNION ALL” is considered best in performance when compared with UNION.
But you should only use “UNION ALL” when you are sure that you have distinct or no common records in both the records-sets.

For more information on this check my earlier blog post which shows the main differences and how performance differs in b/w the two: https://sqlwithmanoj.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/why-union-all-is-faster-than-union/