ANY — SQL Technical Interview Questions & Answers

ANY

ANY

  • ANY (or SOME) compares to a subquery: WHERE marks > ANY (SELECT marks FROM sports); true if greater than at least one sports mark. ALL would mean greater than every one.
  • IN is = ANY. Freshers can say IN and MAX/MIN instead of ANY/ALL if it is clearer — but know the words for MCQs.
  • Trap: mixing ANY with ALL in a spoken answer.
  • On the example next to this theory: ANY: create two demo rows, then SELECT qty >= 2 ordered. Say which labels come back.

Technical Interview Tip: marks > ANY (SELECT marks FROM sports). IN = ANY.

Code Examples for ANY

ANY — sample query

-- ANY
CREATE TABLE demo (
  id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
  label TEXT NOT NULL,
  qty INTEGER DEFAULT 0
);
INSERT INTO demo (id, label, qty) VALUES
  (1, 'alpha', 2),
  (2, 'beta', 5);
SELECT label, qty FROM demo WHERE qty >= 2 ORDER BY qty DESC;

ANY: create two demo rows, then SELECT qty >= 2 ordered. Say which labels come back.

How to Explain ANY to an Interviewer

What is ANY?

True if comparison holds for at least one subquery row IN is = ANY