I'm trying to optimize SQL queries in Akonadi and came across the following problem that is apparently not easy to solve with SQL, at least for me: Assume the following table structure (should work in SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL): CREATE TABLE a ( a_id INT PRIMARY KEY ); INSERT INTO a (a_id) VALUES (1), (2), (3), (4); CREATE TABLE b ( b_id INT PRIMARY KEY, a_id INT, name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL ); INSERT INTO b (b_id, a_id, name) VALUES (1, 1, 'foo'), (2, 1, 'bar'), (3, 1, 'asdf'), (4, 2, 'foo'), (5, 2, 'bar'), (6, 3, 'foo'); Now my problem is to find entries in a that are missing name entries in table b. E.g. I need to make sure each entry in a has at least the name entries "foo" and "bar" in table b. Hence the query should return something similar to: a_id = 3 is missing name "bar" a_id = 4 is missing name "foo" and "bar" Since both tables are potentially huge in Akonadi, performance is of utmost importance. One solution in MySQL would be: SELECT a.a_id, CONCAT('|', GROUP_CONCAT(name ORDER BY NAME ASC SEPARATOR '|'), '|') as names FROM a LEFT JOIN b USING( a_id ) GROUP BY a.a_id HAVING names IS NULL OR names NOT LIKE '%|bar|foo|%'; I have yet to measure the performance tomorrow, but severly doubt it's any fast for tens of thousand of entries in a and thrice as many in b. Furthermore we want to support SQLite and PostgreSQL where to my knowledge the GROUP_CONCAT function is not available. Thanks, good night.