IN (Transact-SQL)
Determines whether a specified value matches any value in a subquery or a list.
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Syntax
test_expression [ NOT ] IN
( subquery | expression [ ,...n ]
)
Arguments
test_expression
Is any valid expression.subquery
Is a subquery that has a result set of one column. This column must have the same data type as test_expression.expression[ ,... n ]
Is a list of expressions to test for a match. All expressions must be of the same type as test_expression.
Result Types
Boolean
Result Value
If the value of test_expression is equal to any value returned by subquery or is equal to any expression from the comma-separated list, the result value is TRUE; otherwise, the result value is FALSE.
Using NOT IN negates the subquery value or expression.
Warning
Any null values returned by subquery or expression that are compared to test_expression using IN or NOT IN return UNKNOWN. Using null values in together with IN or NOT IN can produce unexpected results.
Remarks
Including an extremely large number of values (many thousands) in an IN clause can consume resources and return errors 8623 or 8632. To work around this problem, store the items in the IN list in a table.
Error 8623:
The query processor ran out of internal resources and could not produce a query plan. This is a rare event and only expected for extremely complex queries or queries that reference a very large number of tables or partitions. Please simplify the query. If you believe you have received this message in error, contact Customer Support Services for more information.
Error 8632:
Internal error: An expression services limit has been reached. Please look for potentially complex expressions in your query, and try to simplify them.
Examples
A. Comparing OR and IN
The following example selects a list of the names of employees who are design engineers, tool designers, or marketing assistants.
USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
SELECT p.FirstName, p.LastName, e.JobTitle
FROM Person.Person AS p
JOIN HumanResources.Employee AS e
ON p.BusinessEntityID = e.BusinessEntityID
WHERE e.JobTitle = 'Design Engineer'
OR e.JobTitle = 'Tool Designer'
OR e.JobTitle = 'Marketing Assistant';
GO
However, you retrieve the same results by using IN.
USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
SELECT p.FirstName, p.LastName, e.JobTitle
FROM Person.Person AS p
JOIN HumanResources.Employee AS e
ON p.BusinessEntityID = e.BusinessEntityID
WHERE e.JobTitle IN ('Design Engineer', 'Tool Designer', 'Marketing Assistant');
GO
Here is the result set from either query.
FirstName LastName Title
--------- --------- ---------------------
Sharon Salavaria Design Engineer
Gail Erickson Design Engineer
Jossef Goldberg Design Engineer
Janice Galvin Tool Designer
Thierry D'Hers Tool Designer
Wanida Benshoof Marketing Assistant
Kevin Brown Marketing Assistant
Mary Dempsey Marketing Assistant
(8 row(s) affected)
B. Using IN with a subquery
The following example finds all IDs for the salespeople in the SalesPerson table for employees who have a sales quota greater than $250,000 for the year, and then selects from the Employee table the names of all employees where EmployeeID that match the results from the SELECT subquery.
USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
SELECT p.FirstName, p.LastName
FROM Person.Person AS p
JOIN Sales.SalesPerson AS sp
ON p.BusinessEntityID = sp.BusinessEntityID
WHERE p.BusinessEntityID IN
(SELECT BusinessEntityID
FROM Sales.SalesPerson
WHERE SalesQuota > 250000);
GO
Here is the result set.
FirstName LastName
--------- --------
Tsvi Reiter
Michael Blythe
Tete Mensa-Annan
(3 row(s) affected)
C. Using NOT IN with a subquery
The following example finds the salespersons who do not have a quota greater than $250,000. NOT IN finds the salespersons who do not match the items in the values list.
USE AdventureWorks2008R2
GO
SELECT p.FirstName, p.LastName
FROM Person.Person AS p
JOIN Sales.SalesPerson AS sp
ON p.BusinessEntityID = sp.BusinessEntityID
WHERE p.BusinessEntityID NOT IN
(SELECT BusinessEntityID
FROM Sales.SalesPerson
WHERE SalesQuota > 250000);
GO
See Also