Find the order and customer IDs of those orders placed after the first product of the order #2005 was shipped.

SELECT ID, CustomerID
FROM SalesOrders
WHERE OrderDate > ANY (
   SELECT ShipDate
   FROM SalesOrderItems
   WHERE ID=2005 );

In executing this query, the main query tests the order dates for each order against the shipping dates of every product of the order #2005. If an order date is greater than the shipping date for one shipment of order #2005, then that ID and customer ID from the SalesOrders table are part of the result set. The ANY test is analogous to the OR operator: the above query can be read, "Was this sales order placed after the first product of the order #2005 was shipped, or after the second product of order #2005 was shipped, or..."

The ANY operator can be a bit confusing. It is tempting to read the query as "Return those orders placed after any products of order #2005 were shipped." But this means the query will return the order IDs and customer IDs for the orders placed after all products of order #2005 were shipped—which is not what the query does.

Instead, try reading the query like this: "Return the order and customer IDs for those orders placed after at least one product of order #2005 was shipped." Using the keyword SOME may provide a more intuitive way to phrase the query. The following query is equivalent to the previous query.

SELECT ID, CustomerID
FROM SalesOrders
WHERE OrderDate > SOME (
   SELECT ShipDate
   FROM SalesOrderItems
   WHERE ID=2005 );

The keyword SOME is equivalent to the keyword ANY.

There are two additional important characteristics of the ANY test:

• ANY and SOME search conditions