SQL exercises on movie Database: Find the movie in which the actor appeared whose first and last name are 'Harrison' and 'Ford'

Last update on January 05 2024 12:45:10 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

SQL movie Database: Join Exercise-20 with Solution

20. From the following tables, write a SQL query to find those movies where actor’s first name is 'Harrison' and last name is 'Ford'. Return movie title.

Sample table: movie

 mov_id |                     mov_title                      | mov_year | mov_time |    mov_lang     | mov_dt_rel | mov_rel_country
--------+----------------------------------------------------+----------+----------+-----------------+------------+-----------------
    901 | Vertigo                                            |     1958 |      128 | English         | 1958-08-24 | UK
    902 | The Innocents                                      |     1961 |      100 | English         | 1962-02-19 | SW
    903 | Lawrence of Arabia                                 |     1962 |      216 | English         | 1962-12-11 | UK
    904 | The Deer Hunter                                    |     1978 |      183 | English         | 1979-03-08 | UK
    905 | Amadeus                                            |     1984 |      160 | English         | 1985-01-07 | UK
    906 | Blade Runner                                       |     1982 |      117 | English         | 1982-09-09 | UK
    907 | Eyes Wide Shut                                     |     1999 |      159 | English         |            | UK
    908 | The Usual Suspects                                 |     1995 |      106 | English         | 1995-08-25 | UK
    909 | Chinatown                                          |     1974 |      130 | English         | 1974-08-09 | UK
    910 | Boogie Nights                                      |     1997 |      155 | English         | 1998-02-16 | UK
    911 | Annie Hall                                         |     1977 |       93 | English         | 1977-04-20 | USA
    912 | Princess Mononoke                                  |     1997 |      134 | Japanese        | 2001-10-19 | UK
    913 | The Shawshank Redemption                           |     1994 |      142 | English         | 1995-02-17 | UK
    914 | American Beauty                                    |     1999 |      122 | English         |            | UK
    915 | Titanic                                            |     1997 |      194 | English         | 1998-01-23 | UK
    916 | Good Will Hunting                                  |     1997 |      126 | English         | 1998-06-03 | UK
    917 | Deliverance                                        |     1972 |      109 | English         | 1982-10-05 | UK
    918 | Trainspotting                                      |     1996 |       94 | English         | 1996-02-23 | UK
    919 | The Prestige                                       |     2006 |      130 | English         | 2006-11-10 | UK
    920 | Donnie Darko                                       |     2001 |      113 | English         |            | UK
    921 | Slumdog Millionaire                                |     2008 |      120 | English         | 2009-01-09 | UK
    922 | Aliens                                             |     1986 |      137 | English         | 1986-08-29 | UK
    923 | Beyond the Sea                                     |     2004 |      118 | English         | 2004-11-26 | UK
    924 | Avatar                                             |     2009 |      162 | English         | 2009-12-17 | UK
    926 | Seven Samurai                                      |     1954 |      207 | Japanese        | 1954-04-26 | JP
    927 | Spirited Away                                      |     2001 |      125 | Japanese        | 2003-09-12 | UK
    928 | Back to the Future                                 |     1985 |      116 | English         | 1985-12-04 | UK
    925 | Braveheart                                         |     1995 |      178 | English         | 1995-09-08 | UK

Sample table: movie_cast

 act_id | mov_id |              role
--------+--------+--------------------------------
    101 |    901 | John Scottie Ferguson
    102 |    902 | Miss Giddens
    103 |    903 | T.E. Lawrence
    104 |    904 | Michael
    105 |    905 | Antonio Salieri
    106 |    906 | Rick Deckard
    107 |    907 | Alice Harford
    108 |    908 | McManus
    110 |    910 | Eddie Adams
    111 |    911 | Alvy Singer
    112 |    912 | San
    113 |    913 | Andy Dufresne
    114 |    914 | Lester Burnham
    115 |    915 | Rose DeWitt Bukater
    116 |    916 | Sean Maguire
    117 |    917 | Ed
    118 |    918 | Renton
    120 |    920 | Elizabeth Darko
    121 |    921 | Older Jamal
    122 |    922 | Ripley
    114 |    923 | Bobby Darin
    109 |    909 | J.J. Gittes
    119 |    919 | Alfred Borden

Sample table: actor

 act_id |      act_fname       |      act_lname       | act_gender
--------+----------------------+----------------------+------------
    101 | James                | Stewart              | M
    102 | Deborah              | Kerr                 | F
    103 | Peter                | OToole               | M
    104 | Robert               | De Niro              | M
    105 | F. Murray            | Abraham              | M
    106 | Harrison             | Ford                 | M
    107 | Nicole               | Kidman               | F
    108 | Stephen              | Baldwin              | M
    109 | Jack                 | Nicholson            | M
    110 | Mark                 | Wahlberg             | M
    111 | Woody                | Allen                | M
    112 | Claire               | Danes                | F
    113 | Tim                  | Robbins              | M
    114 | Kevin                | Spacey               | M
    115 | Kate                 | Winslet              | F
    116 | Robin                | Williams             | M
    117 | Jon                  | Voight               | M
    118 | Ewan                 | McGregor             | M
    119 | Christian            | Bale                 | M
    120 | Maggie               | Gyllenhaal           | F
    121 | Dev                  | Patel                | M
    122 | Sigourney            | Weaver               | F
    123 | David                | Aston                | M
    124 | Ali                  | Astin                | F

Sample Solution:

-- Selecting the movie title (mov_title) from the movie table
SELECT m.mov_title
-- Joining the movie and movie_cast tables using the mov_id column
FROM movie m
JOIN movie_cast c 
ON  m.mov_id = c.mov_id
-- Filtering the result to include only records where c.act_id is in the subquery result
WHERE c.act_id IN ( 
  -- Subquery: Selecting act_id from the actor table where act_fname is 'Harrison' and act_lname is 'Ford'
  Select act_id 
  FROM actor 
  WHERE act_fname='Harrison' 
  AND act_lname='Ford'
);

Sample Output:

                     mov_title
----------------------------------------------------
 Blade Runner
(1 row)

Code Explanation :

The said query in SQL that selects the title of all movies that feature Harrison Ford as a cast member.
The JOIN clause joins the movie table with the movie_cast table based on the mov_id column .
The WHERE clause filters the results to include only those rows where the act_id in the movie_cast table is included in a subquery that selects the act_id for Harrison Ford from the actor table. The subquery is executed first to retrieve the act_id for Harrison Ford.

Alternative Solutions:

Using EXISTS Clause:


SELECT m.mov_title
FROM movie m
JOIN movie_cast c ON m.mov_id = c.mov_id
WHERE EXISTS (
    SELECT 1
    FROM actor a
    WHERE a.act_id = c.act_id
    AND a.act_fname = 'Harrison'
    AND a.act_lname = 'Ford'
);

Explanation:

This SQL query uses the EXISTS clause with a subquery to check if there exists an actor with the specified first and last name. If such an actor exists, the main query includes the corresponding movie title.

Using a JOIN and Subquery in ON Clause:


SELECT m.mov_title
FROM movie m
JOIN movie_cast c ON m.mov_id = c.mov_id
JOIN actor a ON c.act_id = a.act_id AND a.act_fname = 'Harrison' AND a.act_lname = 'Ford';

Explanation:

This SQL query uses a JOIN to connect the movie, movie_cast, and actor tables. The condition for the JOIN includes both the regular condition and a condition involving a subquery in the ON clause, which filters for the actor with the specified first and last name.