[sql] SQL Logic Operator Precedence: And and Or

Are the two statements below equivalent?

SELECT [...]
FROM [...]
WHERE some_col in (1,2,3,4,5) AND some_other_expr

and

SELECT [...]
FROM [...]
WHERE some_col in (1,2,3) or some_col in (4,5) AND some_other_expr

Is there some sort of truth table I could use to verify this?

This question is related to sql logical-operators operator-precedence

The answer is


Query to show a 3-variable boolean expression truth table :

;WITH cteData AS
(SELECT 0 AS A, 0 AS B, 0 AS C
UNION ALL SELECT 0,0,1
UNION ALL SELECT 0,1,0
UNION ALL SELECT 0,1,1
UNION ALL SELECT 1,0,0
UNION ALL SELECT 1,0,1
UNION ALL SELECT 1,1,0
UNION ALL SELECT 1,1,1
)
SELECT cteData.*,
    CASE WHEN

(A=1) OR (B=1) AND (C=1)

    THEN 'True' ELSE 'False' END AS Result
FROM cteData

Results for (A=1) OR (B=1) AND (C=1) :

A   B   C   Result
0   0   0   False
0   0   1   False
0   1   0   False
0   1   1   True
1   0   0   True
1   0   1   True
1   1   0   True
1   1   1   True

Results for (A=1) OR ( (B=1) AND (C=1) ) are the same.

Results for ( (A=1) OR (B=1) ) AND (C=1) :

A   B   C   Result
0   0   0   False
0   0   1   False
0   1   0   False
0   1   1   True
1   0   0   False
1   0   1   True
1   1   0   False
1   1   1   True

  1. Arithmetic operators
  2. Concatenation operator
  3. Comparison conditions
  4. IS [NOT] NULL, LIKE, [NOT] IN
  5. [NOT] BETWEEN
  6. Not equal to
  7. NOT logical condition
  8. AND logical condition
  9. OR logical condition

You can use parentheses to override rules of precedence.


I'll add 2 points:

  • "IN" is effectively serial ORs with parentheses around them
  • AND has precedence over OR in every language I know

So, the 2 expressions are simply not equal.

WHERE some_col in (1,2,3,4,5) AND some_other_expr
--to the optimiser is this
WHERE
     (
     some_col = 1 OR
     some_col = 2 OR 
     some_col = 3 OR 
     some_col = 4 OR 
     some_col = 5
     )
     AND
     some_other_expr

So, when you break the IN clause up, you split the serial ORs up, and changed precedence.