Categories:: Conditional Expression Functions

[ NOT ] IN¶

Tests whether its argument is or is not one of the members of an explicit list or the result of a subquery.

Note

In subquery form, IN is equivalent to = ANY and NOT IN is equivalent to <> ALL.

Syntax¶

To compare individual values:

<value> [ NOT ] IN ( <value_1> [ , <value_2> ...  ] )

To compare row constructors (parenthesized lists of values):

( <value_A> [, <value_B> ... ] ) [ NOT ] IN (  ( <value_1> [ , <value_2> ... ] )  [ , ( <value_3> [ , <value_4> ... ] )  ...  ]  )

To compare a value to the values returned by a subquery:

<value> [ NOT ] IN ( <subquery> )

Parameters¶

value

The value for which to search.

value_A, value_B

The elements of a row constructor for which to search.

Ensure that each value on the right of IN (e.g. (value3, value4)) has the same number of elements as the value on the left of IN (e.g. (value_A, value_B)).

value_#

A value to which value should be compared.

If the values to compare to are row constructors, then each value_# is an individual element of a row constructor.

subquery

A subquery that returns a list of values to which value can be compared.

Usage Notes¶

As in most contexts, NULL is not equal to NULL. If value is NULL, then the return value of the function is NULL, whether or not the list or subquery contains NULL.

For example, the following returns NULL, not TRUE:
SELECT NULL IN (1, 2, NULL) AS RESULT;
Syntactically, IN is treated as an operator rather than a function. The example below shows the difference between using IN as an operator and calling f() as a function:
```
SELECT
    f(a, b),
    x IN (y, z) ...
```
You cannot use function syntax with IN. For example, you cannot rewrite the preceding example as:
```
SELECT
    f(a, b),
    IN(x, (y, z)) ...
```
IN is also considered a subquery operator.

Collation Details¶

Arguments with collation specifications are currently not supported.

Examples¶

Using `IN` with Simple Literals¶

The following examples show how to use IN and NOT IN with simple literals:

SELECT 1 IN (1, 2, 3) AS RESULT;
+--------+
| RESULT |
|--------|
| True   |
+--------+

SELECT 4 NOT IN (1, 2, 3) AS RESULT;
+--------+
| RESULT |
|--------|
| True   |
+--------+

Using `IN` With a Subquery¶

SELECT 'a' IN (
    SELECT column1 FROM VALUES ('b'), ('c'), ('d')
    ) AS RESULT;
+--------+
| RESULT |
|--------|
| False  |
+--------+

Using `IN` with a Table¶

These examples show how to use IN with a table. The statement below creates the table used in the examples.

CREATE TABLE my_table (col_1 INTEGER, col_2 INTEGER, col_3 INTEGER);
INSERT INTO my_table (col_1, col_2, col_3) VALUES
    (1, 1, 1),
    (1, 2, 3),
    (4, 5, NULL);

This example shows how to use IN with a single column of a table:

SELECT col_1, col_2, col_3
    FROM my_table
    WHERE (col_1) IN (1, 10, 100, 1000)
    ORDER BY col_1, col_2, col_3;
+-------+-------+-------+
| COL_1 | COL_2 | COL_3 |
|-------+-------+-------|
|     1 |     1 |     1 |
|     1 |     2 |     3 |
+-------+-------+-------+

This example shows how to use IN with multiple columns of a table:

SELECT col_1, col_2, col_3
    FROM my_table
    WHERE (col_1, col_2, col_3) IN ( 
                                   (1,2,3), 
                                   (4,5,6)
                                   );
+-------+-------+-------+
| COL_1 | COL_2 | COL_3 |
|-------+-------+-------|
|     1 |     2 |     3 |
+-------+-------+-------+

This example shows how to use IN with a subquery that reads multiple columns of a table:

SELECT (1, 2, 3) IN (
    SELECT col_1, col_2, col_3 FROM my_table
    ) AS RESULT;
+--------+
| RESULT |
|--------|
| True   |
+--------+

Using NULL¶

Remember that NULL != NULL. Neither of the following queries returns a match when the value on the left or right of the IN contains a NULL:

SELECT NULL IN (1, 2, NULL) AS RESULT;
+--------+
| RESULT |
|--------|
| NULL   |
+--------+

SELECT (4, 5, NULL) IN ( (4, 5, NULL), (7, 8, 9) ) AS RESULT;
+--------+
| RESULT |
|--------|
| NULL   |
+--------+