OR — Match Either Condition

The OR keyword in SQL allows you to combine multiple conditions in a WHERE clause where any one of them can be true.

If at least one condition is true, the row will be included in the result.

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Syntax

SELECT column1, column2, ... FROM table_name
WHERE condition1 OR condition2 OR ...;

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Example 1: Employees in HR or Finance

SELECT name, department FROM employees
WHERE department = 'HR' OR department = 'Finance';

Example 2: Employees in HR or age under 26

SELECT name, age, department FROM employees
WHERE department = 'HR' OR age < 26;

This returns employees who are either in the HR department or are younger than 26.

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This fetches employees from either department.

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Combining AND and OR

You can combine AND and OR to create more complex filters. Use parentheses () to group conditions and control the logic.

Example: Employees in HR or Finance and Female

SELECT name, department, gender FROM employees
WHERE (department = 'HR' OR department = 'Finance') AND gender = 'female';

This returns employees who are female and work in either the HR or Finance department.

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Tip

Use OR when you want to match at least one of the conditions.

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Using OR helps you broaden your query results and explore data that fits any of your specified criteria.