mysql multiple OR query

Hi,

I have a mysql database, usual setup with PHP+apache. In one table there are 16 columns, named "r1" through to "r16" (though name not important). I'd like to perform a query to select all records where any one of these 16 columns are set to a certain value.

The mysql documentation describes how inefficient multiple ORs are, and it would be poor code to write "SELECT certain_things FROM table WHERE r1=$x OR r2=$x OR r3=$x ... OR r16=$x"

Is there a nicer way of doing this? I'm sure that there must be.

Thanks for any help!

Henry

SQL works nicely with a normalized database, where repeated columns are avoided. Denormalized designs, like your table, can lead to some ungainly SQL.


You could write it as WHERE '$x' IN (r1,r2,r3....r16)