Which is faster? Multiple DELETE statements or a single DELETE Statement using "IN ('x', ''y')"

Question

Just wondering which is faster:

DELETE FROM table_name WHERE X='1'
DELETE FROM table_name WHERE X='2'
DELETE FROM table_name WHERE X='3'

or

DELETE FROM table_name WHERE X IN ('1', '2', '3')

Any ideas, hints, or references where to read?

Thank you all!

Answer 1

The single delete will be faster for a few reasons:

1. Only one plan will need to be generated
2. Only one transaction will be involved (if you are using them)
3. If you are running these from code, then there is less overhead with ODBC calls and network traffic
4. Any indexes will need to be refreshed just once, not many times.