Avoid Too Many OR Statements in a MySQL Query

Use MySQL IN() to avoid too many OR statements. Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable
(
   Id int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
   Name varchar(40)
);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.89 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable(Name) values('Chris');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable(Name) values('Robert');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.21 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable(Name) values('Mike');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable(Name) values('Sam');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.09 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable(Name) values('David');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output −

+----+--------+
| Id | Name   |
+----+--------+
|  1 | Chris  |
|  2 | Robert |
|  3 | Mike   |
|  4 | Sam    |
|  5 | David  |
+----+--------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to avoid too many OR statements in a MySQL query i.e. using IN() −

mysql> select *from DemoTable where Id IN(1,3,5);

This will produce the following output −

+----+-------+
| Id | Name  |
+----+-------+
|  1 | Chris |
|  3 | Mike  |
|  5 | David |
+----+-------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)