我想应该是可读性;)

CROSS APPLY对于阅读的人来说有点独特，它告诉他们正在使用一个UDF，该UDF将应用于左侧表中的每一行。

当然，还有其他一些限制，CROSS APPLY比JOIN更好用，其他朋友已经在上面发布了。

谁能给我一个很好的例子，CROSS APPLY在那些INNER JOIN也能工作的情况下发挥作用?

查看我博客上的文章，了解详细的性能比较:

内连接与交叉应用

CROSS APPLY在没有简单JOIN条件的情况下工作得更好。

它为t1中的每条记录从t2中选择3条最后的记录:

SELECT  t1.*, t2o.*
FROM    t1
CROSS APPLY
        (
        SELECT  TOP 3 *
        FROM    t2
        WHERE   t2.t1_id = t1.id
        ORDER BY
                t2.rank DESC
        ) t2o

它不容易用一个INNER连接条件来表述。

你可以使用CTE和window函数做一些类似的事情:

WITH    t2o AS
        (
        SELECT  t2.*, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY t1_id ORDER BY rank) AS rn
        FROM    t2
        )
SELECT  t1.*, t2o.*
FROM    t1
INNER JOIN
        t2o
ON      t2o.t1_id = t1.id
        AND t2o.rn <= 3

，但可读性较差，可能效率也较低。

更新:

只是检查。

master是一个大约有20,000,000条记录的表，id上有一个PRIMARY KEY。

这个查询:

WITH    q AS
        (
        SELECT  *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY id) AS rn
        FROM    master
        ),
        t AS 
        (
        SELECT  1 AS id
        UNION ALL
        SELECT  2
        )
SELECT  *
FROM    t
JOIN    q
ON      q.rn <= t.id

播放了近30秒，而这个:

WITH    t AS 
        (
        SELECT  1 AS id
        UNION ALL
        SELECT  2
        )
SELECT  *
FROM    t
CROSS APPLY
        (
        SELECT  TOP (t.id) m.*
        FROM    master m
        ORDER BY
                id
        ) q

是即时的。

假设您有两张桌子。

掌握表

x------x--------------------x
| Id   |        Name        |
x------x--------------------x
|  1   |          A         |
|  2   |          B         |
|  3   |          C         |
x------x--------------------x

详细信息表

x------x--------------------x-------x
| Id   |      PERIOD        |   QTY |
x------x--------------------x-------x
|  1   |   2014-01-13       |   10  |
|  1   |   2014-01-11       |   15  |
|  1   |   2014-01-12       |   20  |
|  2   |   2014-01-06       |   30  |
|  2   |   2014-01-08       |   40  |
x------x--------------------x-------x

在很多情况下，我们需要用CROSS APPLY替换INNER JOIN。

1. 根据TOP n结果连接两个表

考虑是否需要从Master中选择Id和Name，并从Details表中为每个Id选择最后两个日期。

SELECT M.ID,M.NAME,D.PERIOD,D.QTY
FROM MASTER M
INNER JOIN
(
    SELECT TOP 2 ID, PERIOD,QTY 
    FROM DETAILS D      
    ORDER BY CAST(PERIOD AS DATE)DESC
)D
ON M.ID=D.ID

SQL小提琴

上述查询生成以下结果。

x------x---------x--------------x-------x
|  Id  |   Name  |   PERIOD     |  QTY  |
x------x---------x--------------x-------x
|   1  |   A     | 2014-01-13   |  10   |
|   1  |   A     | 2014-01-12   |  20   |
x------x---------x--------------x-------x

看，它用最后两个日期的Id生成了最近两个日期的结果，然后只在Id上的外部查询中联接这些记录，这是错误的。这应该返回id 1和id 2，但它只返回1，因为1有最后两个日期。为了实现这一点，我们需要使用CROSS APPLY。

SELECT M.ID,M.NAME,D.PERIOD,D.QTY
FROM MASTER M
CROSS APPLY
(
    SELECT TOP 2 ID, PERIOD,QTY 
    FROM DETAILS D  
    WHERE M.ID=D.ID
    ORDER BY CAST(PERIOD AS DATE)DESC
)D

SQL小提琴

形成了下面的结果。

x------x---------x--------------x-------x
|  Id  |   Name  |   PERIOD     |  QTY  |
x------x---------x--------------x-------x
|   1  |   A     | 2014-01-13   |  10   |
|   1  |   A     | 2014-01-12   |  20   |
|   2  |   B     | 2014-01-08   |  40   |
|   2  |   B     | 2014-01-06   |  30   |
x------x---------x--------------x-------x

下面是它的工作原理。CROSS APPLY内部的查询可以引用外部表，而INNER JOIN不能这样做(它会抛出编译错误)。当找到最后两个日期时，在CROSS APPLY中进行连接，即m.d id = d.d id。

2. 当我们需要INNER JOIN功能时使用函数。

当我们需要从主表和函数中获取结果时，可以使用CROSS APPLY代替INNER JOIN。

SELECT M.ID,M.NAME,C.PERIOD,C.QTY
FROM MASTER M
CROSS APPLY dbo.FnGetQty(M.ID) C

这就是函数

CREATE FUNCTION FnGetQty 
(   
    @Id INT 
)
RETURNS TABLE 
AS
RETURN 
(
    SELECT ID,PERIOD,QTY 
    FROM DETAILS
    WHERE ID=@Id
)

SQL小提琴

这产生了以下结果

x------x---------x--------------x-------x
|  Id  |   Name  |   PERIOD     |  QTY  |
x------x---------x--------------x-------x
|   1  |   A     | 2014-01-13   |  10   |
|   1  |   A     | 2014-01-11   |  15   |
|   1  |   A     | 2014-01-12   |  20   |
|   2  |   B     | 2014-01-06   |  30   |
|   2  |   B     | 2014-01-08   |  40   |
x------x---------x--------------x-------x

交叉应用的额外优势

APPLY可以用来代替UNPIVOT。这里可以使用CROSS APPLY或OUTER APPLY，它们是可互换的。

假设您有下面的表(名为MYTABLE)。

x------x-------------x--------------x
|  Id  |   FROMDATE  |   TODATE     |
x------x-------------x--------------x
|   1  |  2014-01-11 | 2014-01-13   | 
|   1  |  2014-02-23 | 2014-02-27   | 
|   2  |  2014-05-06 | 2014-05-30   | 
|   3  |     NULL    |    NULL      |
x------x-------------x--------------x

查询如下。

SELECT DISTINCT ID,DATES
FROM MYTABLE 
CROSS APPLY(VALUES (FROMDATE),(TODATE))
COLUMNNAMES(DATES)

SQL小提琴

结果是什么

  x------x-------------x
  | Id   |    DATES    |
  x------x-------------x
  |  1   |  2014-01-11 |
  |  1   |  2014-01-13 |
  |  1   |  2014-02-23 |
  |  1   |  2014-02-27 |
  |  2   |  2014-05-06 |
  |  2   |  2014-05-30 | 
  |  3   |    NULL     | 
  x------x-------------x

虽然大多数使用CROSS APPLY的查询可以使用INNER JOIN重写，但CROSS APPLY可以产生更好的执行计划和更好的性能，因为它可以在连接发生之前限制正在连接的集合。

从这里偷

下面是一个简短的教程，可以保存在.sql文件中，并在SSMS中执行，这是我为自己编写的，可以快速刷新我对CROSS APPLY如何工作以及何时使用它的记忆:

-- Here's the key to understanding CROSS APPLY: despite the totally different name, think of it as being like an advanced 'basic join'.
-- A 'basic join' gives the Cartesian product of the rows in the tables on both sides of the join: all rows on the left joined with all rows on the right.
-- The formal name of this join in SQL is a CROSS JOIN.  You now start to understand why they named the operator CROSS APPLY.

-- Given the following (very) simple tables and data:
CREATE TABLE #TempStrings ([SomeString] [nvarchar](10) NOT NULL);
CREATE TABLE #TempNumbers ([SomeNumber] [int] NOT NULL);
CREATE TABLE #TempNumbers2 ([SomeNumber] [int] NOT NULL);
INSERT INTO #TempStrings VALUES ('111'); INSERT INTO #TempStrings VALUES ('222');
INSERT INTO #TempNumbers VALUES (111); INSERT INTO #TempNumbers VALUES (222);
INSERT INTO #TempNumbers2 VALUES (111); INSERT INTO #TempNumbers2 VALUES (222); INSERT INTO #TempNumbers2 VALUES (222);

-- Basic join is like CROSS APPLY; 2 rows on each side gives us an output of 4 rows, but 2 rows on the left and 0 on the right gives us an output of 0 rows:
SELECT
    st.SomeString, nbr.SomeNumber
FROM -- Basic join ('CROSS JOIN')
    #TempStrings st, #TempNumbers nbr
    -- Note: this also works:
    --#TempStrings st CROSS JOIN #TempNumbers nbr

-- Basic join can be used to achieve the functionality of INNER JOIN by first generating all row combinations and then whittling them down with a WHERE clause:
SELECT
    st.SomeString, nbr.SomeNumber
FROM -- Basic join ('CROSS JOIN')
    #TempStrings st, #TempNumbers nbr
WHERE
    st.SomeString = nbr.SomeNumber

-- However, for increased readability, the SQL standard introduced the INNER JOIN ... ON syntax for increased clarity; it brings the columns that two tables are
-- being joined on next to the JOIN clause, rather than having them later on in the WHERE clause.  When multiple tables are being joined together, this makes it
-- much easier to read which columns are being joined on which tables; but make no mistake, the following syntax is *semantically identical* to the above syntax:
SELECT
    st.SomeString, nbr.SomeNumber
FROM -- Inner join
    #TempStrings st INNER JOIN #TempNumbers nbr ON st.SomeString = nbr.SomeNumber

-- Because CROSS APPLY is generally used with a subquery, the subquery's WHERE clause will appear next to the join clause (CROSS APPLY), much like the aforementioned
-- 'ON' keyword appears next to the INNER JOIN clause.  In this sense, then, CROSS APPLY combined with a subquery that has a WHERE clause is like an INNER JOIN with
-- an ON keyword, but more powerful because it can be used with subqueries (or table-valued functions, where said WHERE clause can be hidden inside the function).
SELECT
    st.SomeString, nbr.SomeNumber
FROM
    #TempStrings st CROSS APPLY (SELECT * FROM #TempNumbers tempNbr WHERE st.SomeString = tempNbr.SomeNumber) nbr

-- CROSS APPLY joins in the same way as a CROSS JOIN, but what is joined can be a subquery or table-valued function.  You'll still get 0 rows of output if
-- there are 0 rows on either side, and in this sense it's like an INNER JOIN:
SELECT
    st.SomeString, nbr.SomeNumber
FROM
    #TempStrings st CROSS APPLY (SELECT * FROM #TempNumbers tempNbr WHERE 1 = 2) nbr

-- OUTER APPLY is like CROSS APPLY, except that if one side of the join has 0 rows, you'll get the values of the side that has rows, with NULL values for
-- the other side's columns.  In this sense it's like a FULL OUTER JOIN:
SELECT
    st.SomeString, nbr.SomeNumber
FROM
    #TempStrings st OUTER APPLY (SELECT * FROM #TempNumbers tempNbr WHERE 1 = 2) nbr

-- One thing CROSS APPLY makes it easy to do is to use a subquery where you would usually have to use GROUP BY with aggregate functions in the SELECT list.
-- In the following example, we can get an aggregate of string values from a second table based on matching one of its columns with a value from the first
-- table - something that would have had to be done in the ON clause of the LEFT JOIN - but because we're now using a subquery thanks to CROSS APPLY, we
-- don't need to worry about GROUP BY in the main query and so we don't have to put all the SELECT values inside an aggregate function like MIN().
SELECT
    st.SomeString, nbr.SomeNumbers
FROM
    #TempStrings st CROSS APPLY (SELECT SomeNumbers = STRING_AGG(tempNbr.SomeNumber, ', ') FROM #TempNumbers2 tempNbr WHERE st.SomeString = tempNbr.SomeNumber) nbr
-- ^ First the subquery is whittled down with the WHERE clause, then the aggregate function is applied with no GROUP BY clause; this means all rows are
--   grouped into one, and the aggregate function aggregates them all, in this case building a comma-delimited string containing their values.

DROP TABLE #TempStrings;
DROP TABLE #TempNumbers;
DROP TABLE #TempNumbers2;

我想应该是可读性;)

CROSS APPLY对于阅读的人来说有点独特，它告诉他们正在使用一个UDF，该UDF将应用于左侧表中的每一行。

当然，还有其他一些限制，CROSS APPLY比JOIN更好用，其他朋友已经在上面发布了。