IN vs OR in the SQL WHERE Clause?

Question

When dealing with big databases, which performs better, `IN` or `OR` in the SQL `Where`-clause? Is there any difference about the way they are executed?

Answer 1

If you have a lot of items to compare, IN is faster than OR. Even better is to save your long list of values in a temporary table and use a JOIN.

Answer 2

IN performs a binary search on the parameters given. OR evaluates parameters one by one in no particular order. Therefore, IN will always be faster in most situations.