Difference between IN and ANY operators in SQL

Question

What is the difference between IN and ANY operators in SQL?

Answer 1

Maybe for better understanding, these two conditions are equivalent. It's a matter of taste which one you use (provided the RDBMS supports both of them)

... WHERE x IN (SELECT Y FROM THE_TABLE)  
... WHERE x =ANY (SELECT Y FROM THE_TABLE) 

and these also

... WHERE x NOT IN (SELECT Y FROM THE_TABLE) 
... WHERE x <>ALL (SELECT Y FROM THE_TABLE) 

Actually my personal habit is to use IN for list expression (like WHERE x IN (2,4,6,8) and =ANY, resp. <>ALL for sub-queries.