MariaDB 10.6

By using db<>fiddle, you agree to license everything you submit by Creative Commons CC0.

select version();

version()

10.6.9-MariaDB-1:10.6.9+maria~deb11

create table T (a text);
insert into T (a) values ('alice'),('bob'),('mike'),('zia');

Records: 4  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

-- mariadb syntax
select searching.a
from ((select a from T limit 0) union all (values ('alice'),('bob'),('john'),('tom'))) searching
where not exists (select 1 from T where T.a=searching.a)

a

john

tom

-- mysql syntax
select searching.a
from ((select a from T limit 0) union all (values row('alice'),row('bob'),row('john'),row('tom'))) searching
where not exists (select 1 from T where T.a=searching.a)

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near 'row('alice'),row('bob'),row('john'),row('tom'))) searching
where not exists (...' at line 3