SQL WHERE ID IN (id1, id2, …, idn)

I need to write a query to retrieve a big list of ids.

We do support many backends (MySQL, Firebird, SQLServer, Oracle, PostgreSQL …) so I need to write a standard SQL.

The size of the id set could be big, the query would be generated programmatically. So, what is the best approach?

1) Writing a query using IN

SELECT * FROM TABLE WHERE ID IN (id1, id2, ..., idn)

My question here is. What happens if n is very big? Also, what about performance?

2) Writing a query using OR

SELECT * FROM TABLE WHERE ID = id1 OR ID = id2 OR ... OR ID = idn

I think that this approach does not have n limit, but what about performance if n is very big?

3) Writing a programmatic solution:

  foreach (var id in myIdList)
  {
      var item = GetItemByQuery("SELECT * FROM TABLE WHERE ID = " + id);
      myObjectList.Add(item);
  }

We experienced some problems with this approach when the database server is queried over the network. Normally is better to do one query that retrieve all results versus making a lot of small queries. Maybe I’m wrong.

What would be a correct solution for this problem?

Answer

Option 1 is the only good solution.

Why?

• Option 2 does the same but you repeat the column name lots of times; additionally the SQL engine doesn’t immediately know that you want to check if the value is one of the values in a fixed list. However, a good SQL engine could optimize it to have equal performance like with IN. There’s still the readability issue though…

• Option 3 is simply horrible performance-wise. It sends a query every loop and hammers the database with small queries. It also prevents it from using any optimizations for “value is one of those in a given list”