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

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%');