WHERE IN condition not accepting String value

Question

I am dynamically constructing a string with name user_data in PL/Sql procedure by appending USERNAMEs, single quotes(\') and commas(,) of the form

Answer 1

You can a dynamic string in your IN clause with something like this:

SQL> declare
  2      user_data varchar2(1000);
  3      vSQL      varchar2(2000);
  4      type      tabUser is table of varchar2(16);
  5      outData   tabUser;
  6  begin
  7      user_data := '''abc'', ''123'', ''zzz''';
  8      --
  9      vSQL := 'select userName from table_name where username in (' || user_data || ')';
 10      --
 11      execute immediate vSQL bulk collect into outData;
 12      --
 13      dbms_output.put_line('user_data: ' || user_data);
 14      for i in outData.first .. outData.last loop
 15          dbms_output.put_line('User: ' || outData(i));
 16      end loop;
 17  end;
 18  /
user_data: 'abc', '123', 'zzz'
User: abc
User: 123

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL> select * from table_name;

USERNAME
----------------
abc
ABC
123

In this case you always have to use quoted names in your string, no matter if you have one or more usernames.

Answer 2

Your select statement

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE USERNAME IN (user_data)

will be treated as

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE USERNAME = 'abc123','xyz456','pqr789'

which is not correct.

One alternative is

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE INSTR(user_data, USERNAME) > 0

Answer 3

It isn't work like that. Your expression is equal to

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE USERNAME = '''abc123'', ''xyz456'', ''pqr789''';

That's why no results found.

You could do something like this, to achive desire effect:

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE user_data like '%''' || USERNAME || '''%';

But it wouldn't be the same though.

Answer 4

You can do it using a collection:

CREATE TYPE VARCHAR2s_Table IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(100);
/

Then enter your data like this:

SELECT *
FROM   table_name
WHERE  user_data MEMBER OF VARCHAR2s_Table( 'abc123','xyz456','pqr789' );

Alternatively:

You can create a function to split the data and generate the collection:

CREATE TYPE VARCHAR2_TABLE AS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(4000);
/

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION split_String(
  i_str    IN  VARCHAR2,
  i_delim  IN  VARCHAR2 DEFAULT ','
) RETURN VARCHAR2_TABLE DETERMINISTIC
AS
  p_result       VARCHAR2_TABLE := VARCHAR2_TABLE();
  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;
/

Then you can do:

SELECT *
FROM   table_name
WHERE  user_data MEMBER OF split_String( 'abc123,xyz456,pqr789', ',' );

or:

SELECT *
FROM   table_name
WHERE  user_data MEMBER OF split_String( TRIM( '''' FROM '''abc123'',''xyz456'',''pqr789''' ), ''',''' );