OR

OR is an operator in SQL that is used within the WHERE clause to combine multiple conditions. It allows for the retrieval of a record if either of the specified conditions are met.

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE Country='Germany' OR Country='France';

Output

| CustomerID | CustomerName | ContactName | Address | City | Country |
|------------|--------------|--------------|-----------------|------------|----------|
| 1 | Alfreds | Maria Anders | Obere Str. 57 | Berlin | Germany |
| 2 | Ana Trujillo | Ana Trujillo | Avda Montero 37 | México D.F | France |
| 3 | Antonio | Antonio Moreno|Mataderos 2312 | Mexico | France |

Explanation

The code returns all records from the Customers table where the country is either Germany or France. This demonstrated the OR logic, which returns a record if one or both of the conditions are true.

Example

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE department = 'Sales'
OR department = 'Marketing';

Output

+-----------+------+
|employee_id|department|
+-----------+------+
|1 |Sales|
|2 |Marketing|
+-----------+------+

Explanation

This SQL query selects all columns from the employees table where the department is either Sales or Marketing. The OR clause is used to select records that fulfill any of the given conditions.

Example

SELECT * FROM Employees
WHERE City = 'London' OR City = 'Paris';

Output

| EmployeeID | FirstName | LastName | City |
|------------|-----------|----------|-------|
| 1 | John | Doe | London|
| 3 | Jane | Smith | London|
| 5 | Pierre | Dubois | Paris |

Explanation

The OR operator is used in the SQL query to filter the records and return only the employees who are located in either ‘London’ or ‘Paris’. In the output, three records are returned: two from ‘London’ and one from ‘Paris’.

Example

SELECT
employee_name
FROM
employees
WHERE
employee_department = 'Sales'
OR employee_department = 'Marketing';

Output

EMPLOYEE_NAME
-------------
John Do
Ann Smith
Sandra Moore
... and so forth ...

Explanation

The SQL statement selects the names of employees in either the ‘Sales’ or ‘Marketing’ departments. The ‘OR’ clause ensures that any employee from either of these departments is included in the results.

Example

CREATE TABLE Players (
ID INT PRIMARY KEY,
Name TEXT,
Age INT,
Team TEXT
);
INSERT INTO Players (ID, Name, Age, Team)
VALUES (1, 'David', 30, 'TeamA'), (2, 'John', 28, 'TeamB'),
(3, 'Lucas', 32, 'TeamC'), (4, 'Mark', 31, 'TeamA');
SELECT * FROM Players
WHERE Age = 30 OR Team = 'TeamB';

Output

ID | Name | Age | Team
---|-------|-----|------
1 | David | 30 | TeamA
2 | John | 28 | TeamB

Explanation

The SELECT statement with the OR clause in the WHERE condition returns records that meet either of the specified conditions. In the example, it returns records where the player’s Age is 30 or the Team is ‘TeamB’.

For in-depth explanations and examples SQL keywords where you write your SQL, install our extension.