Checking multiple columns for one value

Question

I have a table that has columns like this for example:

id,col1,col2,col3,col4

Now, I want to check if ANY of col1, col2, col3, col4 have the passed in value.

The long way to do it would be..

SELECT * FROM table WHERE (col1 = 123 OR col2 = 123 OR col3 = 123 OR col4 = 123);

I guess it's the opposite version of IN.

Is there an easier way to do what I want?

Answer 1

You can use the IN predicate, like so:

SELECT * FROM table WHERE 123 IN(col1, col2, col3, col4);

SQL Fiddle Demo

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it's the opposite version of IN.

No it is not, It is the same as using the ORs the way you did in your question.

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To clarify this:

The predicate IN or set membership is defined as¹:

Where the Value Expression can be either ²:

So it is fine to do it this way, using the value expression 123, which is a literal.

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^{1, 2: Images from: SQL Queries for Mere Mortals(R): A Hands-On Guide to Data Manipulation in SQL}

Answer 2

You could do something like: (Note: Assuming the columns are numeric values. And, just incase the concatenated value creates the character sequence you are looking for, use a delimiter to distinguish the column values. Pipe (|) is the delimiter in this example.)

SELECT [ID]
    ,[Col1]
    ,[Col2]
    ,[Col3]
    ,[Col4]
FROM [Table1]
WHERE '123' IN (
    CAST([Col1] AS VARCHAR) + '|'
    + CAST([Col2] AS VARCHAR) + '|'
    + CAST([Col3] AS VARCHAR) + '|'
    + CAST([Col4] AS VARCHAR) + '|'
)

Answer 3

I had a similar problem and solved it this way: SELECT * FROM table WHERE col1 OR col2 IN(SELECT xid FROM tablex WHERE somecol = 3)

Not sure if it is "the best way" but it works for me.

Thoughts?