Where value in column containing comma delimited v

Question

Hi I am wondering how to write an SQL statement for SQL Server 2008 that Selects entry's where a column contains a value, now the value within the column is a comma delimited list (usually - there could only be one entry (and no leading comma)) so what In checking for is "is this value contained somewhere within the list?", for instance:

COLUMN = Cat, Dog, Sparrow, Trout, Cow, Seahorse
Does COLUMN contain Cat? YES
Does COLUMN contain horse? NO
Does COLUMN contain Sheep? NO

or

COLUMN = Mouse
Does COLUMN contain Hare? NO
Does COLUMN contain Mouse? YES

etc

I was thinking I could use the 'IN' keyword as such

SELECT id_column FROM table_name WHERE 'Cat' IN COLUMN

but this does not work as it seems that you can only use that to check if a column contains one of a series of comma delimited values.

I also cannot use CONTAINS() OR 'LIKE' as this, in the above example would return values for 'horse' as the whole string contains horse in 'Seahorse', and I can't search for the needle plus a comma (if I'm looking for 'horse' the search would be 'horse,') as what if the entry is at the end of a the list? And I can't search for a comma plus a needle (if I'm looking for 'horse' the search would be ',horse') as what if the entry is the first in the list? And I can't use both as what if the entry is the only (single) entry?

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

Cheers.

Answer 1

select *
from YourTable
where ','+replace(col, ' ', '')+',' like '%,Cat,%'

Answer 2

SELECT * FROM TABLENAME WHERE FIND_IN_SET(@search, column)

If it turns out your column has whitespaces in between the list items, use

SELECT * FROM TABLENAME WHERE FIND_IN_SET(@search, REPLACE(column, ' ', ''))

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/string-functions.html

Answer 3

Just came to know about this when I was searching for a solution to a similar problem. SQL has a new keyword called CONTAINS you can use that. For more details see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187787.aspx

Answer 4

SELECT * FROM TABLE_NAME WHERE
        (
            LOCATE(',DOG,', CONCAT(',',COLUMN,','))>0 OR
            LOCATE(',CAT,', CONCAT(',',COLUMN,','))>0
        );

Answer 5

There is one tricky scenario. If I am looking for '40' in the list '17,34,400,12' then it would find ",40" and return that incorrect entry. This takes care of all solutions:

WHERE (',' + RTRIM(MyColumn) + ',') LIKE '%,' + @search + ',%'

Answer 6

I found this answer on another forum, works perfect. No problems with finding 1 if there is also a 10

WHERE tablename REGEXP "(^|,)@search(,|$)"

I found it here