How do I Search for Multiple Values in the Same SQL Field?

Searching Multiple Values in the Same SQL Field

When building search algorithms, it's often desirable to perform searches on multiple values within a database field. This can be achieved using either the SQL IN operator or the LIKE operator with the OR keyword.

SQL IN Operator

The IN operator allows you to search for records where the field value matches one of multiple specified values. This is useful when the values you are searching for are known beforehand. For example:

<code class="sql">SELECT name FROM products WHERE name IN ('Value1', 'Value2', ...)</code>

SQL LIKE Operator with OR

Alternatively, if you want to perform a search on multiple values using the LIKE operator, you should use the OR keyword to combine the search conditions. This allows you to search for records where the field value contains any of the specified values. For example:

<code class="sql">SELECT name FROM products WHERE name LIKE '%Value1%' OR name LIKE '%Value2%'</code>

Using AND versus OR

The key difference between using AND and OR is that AND requires all conditions to be true for a match, while OR requires only one condition to be true. In your example, using AND would require both the "Sony" and "TV" terms to be present in the name column, while using OR would require either term to be present.

Therefore, if you want to search for records that contain all of the specified values, you should use AND. If you want to search for records that contain at least one of the specified values, you should use OR.

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