How can I rewrite a multi-column IN clause to work

Question

I've got a query that looks something like this:

SELECT
  *
FROM table
WHERE
  (col1, col2) in (
    ('col1_val1', 'col2_val1'),
    ('col1_val2', 'col2_val2'),
    ('col1_val3', 'col2_val3'),
  )

This works in MySQL, but fails in sqlite3 with a syntax error:

Error: near ",": syntax error

How can I rewrite this query to an equivalent one that works in sqlite3?

Answer 1

Choose your favourite version:

http://sqlfiddle.com/#!5/6169b/9

using temporary table

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE pair (a INTEGER, b INTEGER);
INSERT INTO pair (a, b) VALUES (1, 1);
INSERT INTO pair (a, b) VALUES (2, 2);
....

data IN pairs; if pair(a,b) is not unique

SELECT *
FROM data
WHERE EXISTS (
  SELECT NULL
  FROM  pair
  WHERE pair.a = data.a
    AND pair.b = data.b
);

data IN pairs; if pair(a,b) is unique

SELECT     data.*
FROM       data
INNER JOIN pair
        ON pair.a = data.a
       AND pair.b = data.b;

data NOT IN pairs; if pair(a,b) is unique

SELECT    data.*
FROM      data
LEFT JOIN pair
   ON pair.a = data.a
  AND pair.b = data.b
WHERE pair.a IS NULL
   OR pair.b IS NULL;

using inline table

data IN pairs; if pair(a,b) is not unique

SELECT *
FROM data
WHERE EXISTS (
  SELECT NULL
  FROM  (
    SELECT 1 AS a, 1 AS b
    UNION ALL
    SELECT 2 AS a, 2 AS b
    UNION ALL
    SELECT 3 AS a, 3 AS b
  ) AS pair
  WHERE pair.a = data.a
    AND pair.b = data.b
);

data IN pairs; if pair(a,b) is unique

SELECT     data.*
FROM       data
INNER JOIN (
  SELECT 1 AS a, 1 AS b
  UNION ALL
  SELECT 2 AS a, 2 AS b
  UNION ALL
  SELECT 3 AS a, 3 AS b
) AS pair
 ON  pair.a = data.a
AND  pair.b = data.b;

data NOT IN pairs; if pair(a,b) is unique

SELECT    data.*
FROM      data
LEFT JOIN (
  SELECT 1 AS a, 1 AS b
  UNION ALL
  SELECT 2 AS a, 2 AS b
  UNION ALL
  SELECT 3 AS a, 3 AS b
 ) AS pair
   ON pair.a = data.a
  AND pair.b = data.b
WHERE pair.a IS NULL
   OR pair.b IS NULL;

Answer 2

Here's an easy solution that works, but it might not perform well on large data sets because it can't use any of your indexes.

SELECT * FROM table
WHERE col1 || '-' || col2 in (
  'col1_val1-col2_val1',
  'col1_val2-col2_val2',
  'col1_val3-col2_val3'
)

Try it in sqlfiddle

Enjoy!