Is there a combination of "LIKE" and "IN" in SQL?

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 that's irrelevant to the question.

Further, I often use conditions like WHERE something in (1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21) for better readability and flexibility of my SQL statements.

Is there any possible way to combine these two things without writing complicated sub-selects?

I want something as easy as WHERE something LIKE ('bla%', '%foo%', 'batz%') instead of this:

WHERE something LIKE 'bla%'
OR something LIKE '%foo%'
OR something LIKE 'batz%'

I'm working with SQl Server and Oracle here but I'm interested if this is possible in any RDBMS at all.

There is no combination of LIKE & IN in SQL, much less in TSQL (SQL Server) or PLSQL (Oracle). Part of the reason for that is because Full Text Search (FTS) is the recommended alternative.

Both Oracle and SQL Server FTS implementations support the CONTAINS keyword, but the syntax is still slightly different:

Oracle:

WHERE CONTAINS(t.something, 'bla OR foo OR batz', 1) > 0

SQL Server:

WHERE CONTAINS(t.something, '"bla*" OR "foo*" OR "batz*"')

The column you are querying must be full-text indexed.

Reference:

• Building Full-Text Search Applications with Oracle Text

• Understanding SQL Server Full-Text

If you want to make your statement easily readable, then you can use REGEXP_LIKE (available from Oracle version 10 onwards).

An example table:

SQL> create table mytable (something)
  2  as
  3  select 'blabla' from dual union all
  4  select 'notbla' from dual union all
  5  select 'ofooof' from dual union all
  6  select 'ofofof' from dual union all
  7  select 'batzzz' from dual
  8  /

Table created.

The original syntax:

SQL> select something
  2    from mytable
  3   where something like 'bla%'
  4      or something like '%foo%'
  5      or something like 'batz%'
  6  /

SOMETH
------
blabla
ofooof
batzzz

3 rows selected.

And a simple looking query with REGEXP_LIKE

SQL> select something
  2    from mytable
  3   where regexp_like (something,'^bla|foo|^batz')
  4  /

SOMETH
------
blabla
ofooof
batzzz

3 rows selected.

BUT ...

I would not recommend it myself due to the not-so-good performance. I'd stick with the several LIKE predicates. So the examples were just for fun.

you're stuck with the

WHERE something LIKE 'bla%'
OR something LIKE '%foo%'
OR something LIKE 'batz%'

unless you populate a temp table (include the wild cards in with the data) and join like this:

FROM YourTable                y
    INNER JOIN YourTempTable  t On y.something LIKE t.something

try it out (using SQL Server syntax):

declare @x table (x varchar(10))
declare @y table (y varchar(10))
    
insert @x values ('abcdefg')
insert @x values ('abc')
insert @x values ('mnop')
    
insert @y values ('%abc%')
insert @y values ('%b%')
    
select distinct *
FROM @x x
WHERE x.x LIKE '%abc%' 
   or x.x LIKE '%b%'


select distinct x.*  
FROM @x             x
    INNER JOIN  @y  y On x.x LIKE y.y

OUTPUT:

x
----------
abcdefg
abc

(2 row(s) affected)

x
----------
abc
abcdefg

(2 row(s) affected)

With PostgreSQL there is the ANY or ALL form:

WHERE col LIKE ANY( subselect )

or

WHERE col LIKE ALL( subselect )

where the subselect returns exactly one column of data.

Another solution, should work on any RDBMS:

WHERE EXISTS (SELECT 1
                FROM (SELECT 'bla%' pattern FROM dual UNION ALL
                      SELECT '%foo%'        FROM dual UNION ALL
                      SELECT 'batz%'        FROM dual)
               WHERE something LIKE pattern)

The inner select can be replaced by another source of patterns like a table (or a view) in this way:

WHERE EXISTS (SELECT 1
                FROM table_of_patterns t
               WHERE something LIKE t.pattern)

table_of_patterns should contain at least a column pattern, and can be populated like this:

INSERT INTO table_of_patterns(pattern) VALUES ('bla%');
INSERT INTO table_of_patterns(pattern) VALUES ('%foo%');
INSERT INTO table_of_patterns(pattern) VALUES ('batz%');

I would suggest using a TableValue user function if you'd like to encapsulate the Inner Join or temp table techniques shown above. This would allow it to read a bit more clearly.

After using the split function defined at: http://www.logiclabz.com/sql-server/split-function-in-sql-server-to-break-comma-separated-strings-into-table.aspx

we can write the following based on a table I created called "Fish" (int id, varchar(50) Name)

SELECT Fish.* from Fish 
    JOIN dbo.Split('%ass,%e%',',') as Splits 
    on Name like Splits.items  //items is the name of the output column from the split function.

Outputs

1	Bass
2	Pike
7	Angler
8	Walleye

> I'm working with SQl Server and Oracle here but I'm interested if this is possible in any RDBMS at all.

Teradata supports LIKE ALL/ANY syntax:

> ALL every string in the list.
> ANY any string in the list. > > >
> ┌──────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┐ > │ THIS expression … │ IS equivalent to this expression … │ > ├──────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────┤ > │ x LIKE ALL ('A%','%B','%C%') │ x LIKE 'A%' │ > │ │ AND x LIKE '%B' │ > │ │ AND x LIKE '%C%' │ > │ │ │ > │ x LIKE ANY ('A%','%B','%C%') │ x LIKE 'A%' │ > │ │ OR x LIKE '%B' │ > │ │ OR x LIKE '%C%' │ > └──────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────┘

---

EDIT:

jOOQ version 3.12.0 supports that syntax:

Add synthetic [NOT] LIKE ANY and [NOT] LIKE ALL operators

> A lot of times, SQL users would like to be able to combine LIKE and IN predicates, as in: > > SELECT * > FROM customer > WHERE last_name [ NOT ] LIKE ANY ('A%', 'E%') [ ESCAPE '!' ] > > The workaround is to manually expand the predicate to the equivalent > > SELECT * > FROM customer > WHERE last_name LIKE 'A%' > OR last_name LIKE 'E%' > > jOOQ could support such a synthetic predicate out of the box.

---

PostgreSQL LIKE/ILIKE ANY (ARRAY[]):

SELECT *
FROM t
WHERE c LIKE ANY (ARRAY['A%', '%B']);

SELECT *
FROM t
WHERE c LIKE ANY ('{"Do%", "%at"}');

db<>fiddle demo

---

Snowflake also supports LIKE ANY/LIKE ALL matching:

> LIKE ANY/ALL > > Allows case-sensitive matching of strings based on comparison with one or more patterns. > > LIKE ANY ( [, ... ] ) [ ESCAPE ]

Example:

SELECT * 
FROM like_example 
WHERE subject LIKE ANY ('%Jo%oe%','T%e')
-- WHERE subject LIKE ALL ('%Jo%oe%','J%e')

Use an inner join instead:

SELECT ...
FROM SomeTable
JOIN
(SELECT 'bla%' AS Pattern 
UNION ALL SELECT '%foo%'
UNION ALL SELECT 'batz%'
UNION ALL SELECT 'abc'
) AS Patterns
ON SomeTable.SomeColumn LIKE Patterns.Pattern

One approach would be to store the conditions in a temp table (or table variable in SQL Server) and join to that like this:

SELECT t.SomeField
FROM YourTable t
   JOIN #TempTableWithConditions c ON t.something LIKE c.ConditionValue

I have a simple solution, that works in postgresql at least, using like any followed by the list of regex. Here is an example, looking at identifying some antibiotics in a list:

select *
from database.table
where lower(drug_name) like any ('{%cillin%,%cyclin%,%xacin%,%mycine%,%cephal%}')

u can even try this

Function

CREATE  FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_Split](@text varchar(8000), @delimiter varchar(20))
RETURNS @Strings TABLE
(   
  position int IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
  value varchar(8000)  
)
AS
BEGIN

DECLARE @index int
SET @index = -1

WHILE (LEN(@text) > 0)
  BEGIN 
    SET @index = CHARINDEX(@delimiter , @text) 
    IF (@index = 0) AND (LEN(@text) > 0) 
      BEGIN  
        INSERT INTO @Strings VALUES (@text)
          BREAK 
      END 
    IF (@index > 1) 
      BEGIN  
        INSERT INTO @Strings VALUES (LEFT(@text, @index - 1))  
        SET @text = RIGHT(@text, (LEN(@text) - @index)) 
      END 
    ELSE
      SET @text = RIGHT(@text, (LEN(@text) - @index))
    END
  RETURN
END

Query

select * from my_table inner join (select value from fn_split('ABC,MOP',','))
as split_table on my_table.column_name like '%'+split_table.value+'%';

Starting with 2016, SQL Server includes a STRING_SPLIT function. I'm using SQL Server v17.4 and I got this to work for me:

DECLARE @dashboard nvarchar(50)
SET @dashboard = 'P1%,P7%'

SELECT * from Project p
JOIN STRING_SPLIT(@dashboard, ',') AS sp ON p.ProjectNumber LIKE sp.value

I was also wondering for something like that. I just tested using a combination of SUBSTRING and IN and it is an effective solution for this kind of problem. Try the below query :

Select * from TB_YOUR T1 Where SUBSTRING(T1.Something, 1,3) IN ('bla', 'foo', 'batz')

In Oracle you can use a collection in the following way:

WHERE EXISTS (SELECT 1
                FROM TABLE(ku$_vcnt('bla%', '%foo%', 'batz%'))
               WHERE something LIKE column_value)

Here I have used a predefined collection type ku$_vcnt, but you can declare your own one like this:

CREATE TYPE my_collection AS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(4000);

I may have a solution for this, although it will only work in SQL Server 2008 as far as I know. I discovered that you can use the row-constructor described in https://stackoverflow.com/a/7285095/894974 to join a 'fictional' table using a like clause. It sounds more complex then it is, look:

SELECT [name]
  ,[userID]
  ,[name]
  ,[town]
  ,[email]
FROM usr
join (values ('hotmail'),('gmail'),('live')) as myTable(myColumn) on email like '%'+myTable.myColumn+'%' 

This will result in all users with an e-mail adres like the ones provided in the list. Hope it's of use to anyone. The problem had been bothering me a while.

For Sql Server you can resort to Dynamic SQL.

Most of the time in such situations you have the parameter of IN clause based on some data from database.

The example below is a little "forced", but this can match various real cases found in legacy databases.

Suppose you have table Persons where person names are stored in a single field PersonName as FirstName + ' ' + LastName. You need to select all persons from a list of first names, stored in field NameToSelect in table NamesToSelect, plus some additional criteria (like filtered on gender, birth date, etc)

You can do it as follows

-- @gender is nchar(1), @birthDate is date 

declare 
  @sql nvarchar(MAX),
  @subWhere nvarchar(MAX)
  @params nvarchar(MAX)

-- prepare the where sub-clause to cover LIKE IN (...)
-- it will actually generate where clause PersonName Like 'param1%' or PersonName Like 'param2%' or ...   
set @subWhere = STUFF(
  (
    SELECT ' OR PersonName like ''' + [NameToSelect] + '%''' 
	    FROM [NamesToSelect] t FOR XML PATH('')
  ), 1, 4, '')

-- create the dynamic SQL
set @sql ='select 
      PersonName
      ,Gender
      ,BirstDate    -- and other field here         
  from [Persons]
  where 
    Gender = @gender
    AND BirthDate = @birthDate
    AND (' + @subWhere + ')'

set @params = ' @gender nchar(1),
  @birthDate Date'     

EXECUTE sp_executesql @sql, @params, 	
  @gender,	
  @birthDate

May be you think the combination like this:

SELECT  * 
FROM    table t INNER JOIN
(
  SELECT * FROM (VALUES('bla'),('foo'),('batz')) AS list(col)
) l ON t.column  LIKE '%'+l.Col+'%'

If you have defined full text index for your target table then you may use this alternative:

SELECT  * 
FROM    table t
WHERE CONTAINS(t.column, '"bla*" OR "foo*" OR "batz*"')

If you are using MySQL the closest you can get is full-text search:

Full-Text Search, MySQL Documentation

This works for comma separated values

DECLARE @ARC_CHECKNUM VARCHAR(MAX)
SET @ARC_CHECKNUM = 'ABC,135,MED,ASFSDFSF,AXX'
SELECT ' AND (a.arc_checknum LIKE ''%' + REPLACE(@arc_checknum,',','%''	OR a.arc_checknum LIKE ''%') + '%'')''

Evaluates to:

 AND (a.arc_checknum LIKE '%ABC%' OR a.arc_checknum LIKE '%135%' OR a.arc_checknum LIKE '%MED%' OR a.arc_checknum LIKE '%ASFSDFSF%' OR a.arc_checknum LIKE '%AXX%')

If you want it to use indexes, you must omit the first '%' character.

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.

No answer like this:

SELECT * FROM table WHERE something LIKE ('bla% %foo% batz%')

In oracle no problem.

In Teradata you can use LIKE ANY ('%ABC%','%PQR%','%XYZ%'). Below is an example which has produced the same results for me

--===========
--	CHECK ONE
--===========
SELECT *
FROM Random_Table A
WHERE (Lower(A.TRAN_1_DSC) LIKE ('%american%express%centurion%bank%')
OR Lower(A.TRAN_1_DSC) LIKE ('%bofi%federal%bank%')
OR Lower(A.TRAN_1_DSC) LIKE ('%american%express%bank%fsb%'))

;
--===========
--	CHECK TWO
--===========
SELECT *
FROM Random_Table  A
WHERE Lower(A.TRAN_1_DSC) LIKE ANY 
('%american%express%centurion%bank%',
'%bofi%federal%bank%',
'%american%express%bank%fsb%')

Sorry for dredging up an old post, but it has a lot of views. I faced a similar problem this week and came up with this pattern:

declare @example table ( sampletext varchar( 50 ) );

insert @example values 
( 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.' ),
( 'Ask not what your country can do for you.' ),
( 'Cupcakes are the new hotness.' );

declare @filter table ( searchtext varchar( 50 ) );

insert @filter values
( 'lazy' ),
( 'hotness' ),
( 'cupcakes' );

-- Expect to get rows 1 and 3, but no duplication from Cupcakes and Hotness
select * 
from @example e
where exists ( select * from @filter f where e.sampletext like '%' + searchtext + '%' )

Exists() works a little better than join, IMO, because it just tests each record in the set, but doesn't cause duplication if there are multiple matches.

This is possible in Postgres using like or ilike and any or all with array. This is an example that worked for me using Postgres 9:

select id, name from tb_organisation where name ilike any (array['%wembley%', '%south%']);

And this prints out:

id  |          name
-----+------------------------
433 | South Tampa Center
613 | South Pole
365 | Bromley South
796 | Wembley Special Events
202 | Southall
111 | Wembley Inner Space

do this

WHERE something + '%' in ('bla', 'foo', 'batz')
OR '%' + something + '%' in ('tra', 'la', 'la')

or

WHERE something + '%' in (select col from table where ....)