Using SQL’s IN syntax to search multiple fields

Josh Sherman
1 min read
Software Development SQL

This may not be something new for anyone, but figured I’d post it anyway. I needed to check for a certain date in multiple fields, instead of listing each one out, I used IN but used the value on the left side, and listed the fields in the parenthesis.

Before

SELECT id
FROM table
WHERE date1 = "1981-02-23",
   OR date2 = "1981-02-23",
   OR date3 = "1981-02-23",
   OR date4 = "1981-02-23",
   OR date5 = "1981-02-23";

After

SELECT id
FROM table
WHERE "1981-02-23" IN (date1, date2, date3, date4, date5);
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