Query table with different list of variables using like

Question

I call a webservice and i get a list of codes: A, B, C, D, E, F etc.

In my problem i get A, B, C.

There\'s a table where you can create sets with the above codes

Answer 1

Oracle Setup:

Start with a simple function to split a delimited string into a collection:

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE stringlist AS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(20)
/

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION split_String(
  i_str    IN  VARCHAR2,
  i_delim  IN  VARCHAR2 DEFAULT ','
) RETURN stringlist DETERMINISTIC
AS
  p_result       stringlist := stringlist();
  p_start        NUMBER(5) := 1;
  p_end          NUMBER(5);
  c_len CONSTANT NUMBER(5) := LENGTH( i_str );
  c_ld  CONSTANT NUMBER(5) := LENGTH( i_delim );
BEGIN
  IF c_len > 0 THEN
    p_end := INSTR( i_str, i_delim, p_start );
    WHILE p_end > 0 LOOP
      p_result.EXTEND;
      p_result( p_result.COUNT ) := SUBSTR( i_str, p_start, p_end - p_start );
      p_start := p_end + c_ld;
      p_end := INSTR( i_str, i_delim, p_start );
    END LOOP;
    IF p_start <= c_len + 1 THEN
      p_result.EXTEND;
      p_result( p_result.COUNT ) := SUBSTR( i_str, p_start, c_len - p_start + 1 );
    END IF;
  END IF;
  RETURN p_result;
END;
/

and some sample data:

CREATE TABLE your_table( setid, codes, messagedescr ) 
  SELECT 1, 'A,B,C,D', 'You can login' FROM DUAL UNION ALL
  SELECT 2, 'B,C,D',   'You can login for one day' FROM DUAL UNION ALL
  SELECT 3, 'A,C,E',   'You can login but update your profile' FROM DUAL UNION ALL
  SELECT 4, 'B,C,E,F', 'You cannot login' FROM DUAL;

Then you can do (passing your input C,A,B - in any order - as the bind parameter :your_code):

SELECT *
FROM   (
  SELECT *
  FROM   your_table
  WHERE  split_string( codes ) SUBMULTISET OF split_String( :your_code )
  ORDER BY setid DESC
)
WHERE ROWNUM = 1;

and it will output the row with the highest matching set of codes.

Note: The above example assumes that you need to match all the codes in the table to codes in your input string. If you only need to match at least one then you can use:

WHERE split_string( codes ) MULTISET INTERSECT split_String( :your_code ) IS NOT EMPTY