Ejemplo de consulta EXCEPT

La tabla CATEGORY de la base de datos contiene las 11 filas siguientes:

 catid | catgroup |  catname  |                  catdesc
-------+----------+-----------+--------------------------------------------
   1   | Sports   | MLB       | Major League Baseball
   2   | Sports   | NHL       | National Hockey League
   3   | Sports   | NFL       | National Football League
   4   | Sports   | NBA       | National Basketball Association
   5   | Sports   | MLS       | Major League Soccer
   6   | Shows    | Musicals  | Musical theatre
   7   | Shows    | Plays     | All non-musical theatre
   8   | Shows    | Opera     | All opera and light opera
   9   | Concerts | Pop       | All rock and pop music concerts
  10   | Concerts | Jazz      | All jazz singers and bands
  11   | Concerts | Classical | All symphony, concerto, and choir concerts
(11 rows)

Supongamos que una tabla CATEGORY_STAGE (una tabla provisional) contiene una fila adicional:

 catid | catgroup |  catname  |                  catdesc
-------+----------+-----------+--------------------------------------------
   1   | Sports   | MLB       | Major League Baseball
   2   | Sports   | NHL       | National Hockey League
   3   | Sports   | NFL       | National Football League
   4   | Sports   | NBA       | National Basketball Association
   5   | Sports   | MLS       | Major League Soccer
   6   | Shows    | Musicals  | Musical theatre
   7   | Shows    | Plays     | All non-musical theatre
   8   | Shows    | Opera     | All opera and light opera
   9   | Concerts | Pop       | All rock and pop music concerts
  10   | Concerts | Jazz      | All jazz singers and bands
  11   | Concerts | Classical | All symphony, concerto, and choir concerts
  12   | Concerts | Comedy    | All stand up comedy performances
(12 rows)

Devuelve la diferencia entre las dos tablas. En otras palabras, devuelve filas que están en la tabla CATEGORY_STAGE pero no en la tabla CATEGORY:

select * from category_stage
except
select * from category;

catid | catgroup | catname |             catdesc
-------+----------+---------+----------------------------------
  12  | Concerts | Comedy  | All stand up comedy performances
(1 row)

La siguiente consulta equivalente usa el sinónimo MINUS.

select * from category_stage
minus
select * from category;

catid | catgroup | catname |             catdesc
-------+----------+---------+----------------------------------
  12  | Concerts | Comedy  | All stand up comedy performances
(1 row)

Si revierte el orden de las expresiones SELECT, la consulta no devuelve filas.