Checking multiple columns for one value

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?

Solution 1:

You can use the IN predicate, like so:

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

SQL Fiddle Demo

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.

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.

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

Solution 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) + '|'
)