SQL Or

The SQL OR Operator

The WHERE clause can contain one or more OR operators.

The OR operator is used to filter records based on more than one condition.

Note: The OR operator displays a record if any of the conditions are TRUE.

The following SQL selects all customers from Germany OR Spain:

Example

SELECT *

FROM Customers

WHERE Country = 'Germany' OR Country = 'Spain';

OR Syntax

<p><code class="sqlHigh">
SELECT <em>column1</em>,<em> column2, ...</em><br/>
FROM <em>table_name</em><br/>
WHERE <em>condition1</em> OR <em>condition2</em> OR <em>condition3 ...</em>;
</code></p>

Demo Database

Below is a selection from the Customers table used in the examples:

At Least One Condition Must Be True

The following SQL selects all customers where City is "Berlin", OR CustomerName starts with the letter "G", OR Country is "Norway":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers

WHERE City = 'Berlin'
OR CustomerName LIKE 'G%'
OR Country = 'Norway';

AND vs. OR

Note: The AND operator displays a record if all the conditions are TRUE. The OR operator displays a record if any of the conditions are TRUE.

Combining AND and OR

You can also combine AND and OR operators.

The following SQL selects all customers from Spain that starts with a "G" or an "R" (make sure to use parenthesis to get the correct result):

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers

WHERE Country = 'Spain'
AND (CustomerName LIKE 'G%' OR CustomerName LIKE 'R%');

Without parenthesis, the SQL above will return all customers from Spain that starts with a "G", plus all customers that starts with an "R", regardless of the country value:

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers

WHERE Country = 'Spain'
AND CustomerName LIKE 'G%' OR CustomerName LIKE 'R%';