Is there a combination of “LIKE” and “IN” in SQL?

Question

In SQL I (sadly) often have to use \"LIKE\" conditions due to databases that violate nearly every rule of normalization. I can\'t change that right now. But tha

Answer 1

In Oracle RBDMS you can achieve this behavior using REGEXP_LIKE function.

The following code will test if the string three is present in the list expression one|two|three|four|five (in which the pipe "|" symbol means OR logic operation).

SELECT 'Success !!!' result
FROM dual
WHERE REGEXP_LIKE('three', 'one|two|three|four|five');

RESULT
---------------------------------
Success !!!

1 row selected.

Preceding expression is equivalent to:

three=one OR three=two OR three=three OR three=four OR three=five

So it will succeed.

On the other hand, the following test will fail.

SELECT 'Success !!!' result
FROM dual
WHERE REGEXP_LIKE('ten', 'one|two|three|four|five');

no rows selected

There are several functions related to regular expressions (REGEXP_*) available in Oracle since 10g version. If you are an Oracle developer and interested this topic this should be a good beginning Using Regular Expressions with Oracle Database.