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

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)