SQL IN

The SQL IN clause is used when you are filtering data and you want to look for more than one value.

Let’s take a look at the following query:

select * 
from customer 
where customer_company = 'Dell' 
 or customer_company='HP' 
 or customer_company='Walmart'; 

This query says that we want all of the columns, from the company table, where the customer_company is either Dell, or HP, or Walmart.

Here are the results:

This query works great, but it means you have to type a lot more than you need to.

That is where the “IN” clause comes into play.  Instead of typing “customer_company” 3 times like we did in the previous SQL Query, we can write the query as follows:

select * 
from customer 
where customer_company IN ('Dell','HP','Walmart'); 

The results of this query are the exact same as the results above.

Notice how much less typing I had to do.  And, notice the syntax.

It goes column name (in this case customer_company), then you use the “IN” word, then you list all of the values in side of parenthesis and separated by commas.

That’s it.  I often use the IN clause instead of a bunch of OR’s, because it is neater and easier for me to read.

As you start putting more complex queries together, it will be a lot easier to keep track of an IN clause instead of a bunch of OR statements.

Remember to put any question, comments, or other topics you would like for me to explain into the comment section below.