UNION versus SELECT DISTINCT and UNION ALL Performance
<p>Is there any difference between these two performance-wise?</p>

<pre><code>-- eliminate duplicates using UNION
SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table1 
UNION SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table2 
UNION SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table3 
UNION SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table4 
UNION SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table5       
UNION SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table6       
UNION SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table7       
UNION SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table8       

-- eliminate duplicates using DISTINCT    
SELECT DISTINCT * FROM
(     
    SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table1 
    UNION ALL SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table2 
    UNION ALL SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table3 
    UNION ALL SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table4 
    UNION ALL SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table5       
    UNION ALL SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table6       
    UNION ALL SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table7       
    UNION ALL SELECT col1,col2,col3 FROM Table8       
) x   
</code></pre>