SQL ANY and ALL Operators - Explained with Examples

Demystify SQL ANY and ALL operators! Elevate your query skills with practical examples, mastering advanced comparison techniques for precise database analysis.

The SQL ANY and ALL Operators

The ANY and ALL operators allow you to perform a comparison between a single column value and a range of other values.

The SQL ANY Operator

The ANY operator:

returns a boolean value as a result
returns TRUE if ANY of the subquery values meet the condition

ANY means that the condition will be true if the operation is true for any of the values in the range.

ANY Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name operator ANY
  (SELECT column_name
  FROM table_name
  WHERE condition);

Note: The operator must be a standard comparison operator (=, <>, !=, >, >=, <, or <=).

The SQL ALL Operator

The ALL operator:

returns a boolean value as a result
returns TRUE if ALL of the subquery values meet the condition
is used with SELECT, WHERE and HAVING statements

ALL means that the condition will be true only if the operation is true for all values in the range.

ALL Syntax With SELECT

SELECT ALL column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;

ALL Syntax With WHERE or HAVING

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name operator ALL
  (SELECT column_name
  FROM table_name
  WHERE condition);

Note: The operator must be a standard comparison operator (=, <>, !=, >, >=, <, or <=).

Demo Database

Below is a selection from the "Products" table in the Northwind sample database:

ProductID	ProductName	SupplierID	CategoryID	Unit	Price
1	Chais	1	1	10 boxes x 20 bags	18
2	Chang	1	1	24 - 12 oz bottles	19
3	Aniseed Syrup	1	2	12 - 550 ml bottles	10
4	Chef Anton's Cajun Seasoning	2	2	48 - 6 oz jars	22
5	Chef Anton's Gumbo Mix	2	2	36 boxes	21.35
6	Grandma's Boysenberry Spread	3	2	12 - 8 oz jars	25
7	Uncle Bob's Organic Dried Pears	3	7	12 - 1 lb pkgs.	30
8	Northwoods Cranberry Sauce	3	2	12 - 12 oz jars	40
9	Mishi Kobe Niku	4	6	18 - 500 g pkgs.	97

And a selection from the "OrderDetails" table:

OrderDetailID	OrderID	ProductID	Quantity
1	10248	11	12
2	10248	42	10
3	10248	72	5
4	10249	14	9
5	10249	51	40
6	10250	41	10
7	10250	51	35
8	10250	65	15
9	10251	22	6
10	10251	57	15

SQL ANY Examples

The following SQL statement lists the ProductName if it finds ANY records in the OrderDetails table has Quantity equal to 10 (this will return TRUE because the Quantity column has some values of 10):

Example

SELECT ProductName
FROM Products
WHERE ProductID = ANY
  (SELECT ProductID
  FROM OrderDetails
  WHERE Quantity = 10);

The following SQL statement lists the ProductName if it finds ANY records in the OrderDetails table has Quantity larger than 99 (this will return TRUE because the Quantity column has some values larger than 99):

Example

SELECT ProductName
FROM Products
WHERE ProductID = ANY
  (SELECT ProductID
  FROM OrderDetails
  WHERE Quantity > 99);

The following SQL statement lists the ProductName if it finds ANY records in the OrderDetails table has Quantity larger than 1000 (this will return FALSE because the Quantity column has no values larger than 1000):

Example

SELECT ProductName
FROM Products
WHERE ProductID = ANY
  (SELECT ProductID
  FROM OrderDetails
  WHERE Quantity > 1000);

SQL ALL Examples

The following SQL statement lists ALL the product names:

Example

SELECT ALL ProductName
FROM Products
WHERE TRUE;

The following SQL statement lists the ProductName if ALL the records in the OrderDetails table has Quantity equal to 10. This will of course return FALSE because the Quantity column has many different values (not only the value of 10):

Example

SELECT ProductName
FROM Products
WHERE ProductID = ALL
  (SELECT ProductID
  FROM OrderDetails
  WHERE Quantity = 10);

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