Oracle SQL REGEXP for finding a value between columns, irrespective of their position - sql

Question

I have following set of data in two different columns in a table. I need to check if the BB% value is matching between both the columns or not.
Column A
Column B
BB12,AA13,CC24
AA13,BB12,CC24
BB99,AA34,CC78
AA34,CC78,BB77
AA22,BB33,CC77
AA22,BB33,BB44,CC77
I initially tried using below REGEXP. But this will only work if the BB value in column A is always in position 1 and in Column B with position 2. But I need a REGEXP to check something for row 2 and row 3 scenarios.
REGEXP_SUBSTR(ColumnA, '\w+', 1, 1) <> REGEXP_SUBSTR(ColumnB, '\w+', 1, 2)

Answer 1

You can try this. But, it does not take account the case there are more than one occurrence of BBXXX in the columnA. In such a case, the comparison will only be based on the first occurence of BBXXX in the columnA.
with your_table (ColumnA, ColumnB) as (
select 'BB12,AA13,CC24', 'AA13,BB12,CC24' from dual union all
select 'BB99,AA34,CC78', 'AA34,CC78,BB77' from dual union all
select 'AA22,BB33,CC77', 'AA22,BB33,BB44,CC77' from dual union all
select 'AA22,BB33,CC77', 'AA22,BB44,BB33,CC77' from dual union all
select 'AA22,BB33,CC77', 'BB33,AA22,BB44,CC77' from dual
)
select COLUMNA, COLUMNB
from your_table t
where ','||COLUMNB||',' NOT like '%,'||regexp_substr(COLUMNA, 'BB[^,]*', 1, 1)||',%'
;

Answer 2

I believe this will do the trick and allow for the value in COLB to be in any position. Return the rows where the first "BB" element in COLA is not in COLB. Note row 3 has the "BB" values swapped from the original example to show order does not matter.
WITH tbl(ID, cola, colb) AS (
SELECT 1, 'BB12,AA13,CC24','AA13,BB12,CC24' FROM dual UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 'BB99,AA34,CC78','AA34,CC78,BB77' FROM dual UNION ALL
SELECT 3, 'AA22,BB33,CC77','AA22,BB44,BB33,CC77' FROM dual
)
SELECT ID, COLA, COLB
FROM tbl T
WHERE NOT REGEXP_LIKE(COLB, REGEXP_SUBSTR(COLA, 'BB[^,]*'));
ID COLA COLB
---------- -------------- -------------------
2 BB99,AA34,CC78 AA34,CC78,BB77

Answer 3

I suggest extracting the BBxx substring from each string and then compare the two for equality or inequality:
WITH cteData(ColumnA,ColumnB) AS
(SELECT 'BB12,AA13,CC24', 'AA13,BB12,CC24' FROM DUAL UNION ALL
SELECT 'BB99,AA34,CC78', 'AA34,CC78,BB77' FROM DUAL UNION ALL
SELECT 'AA22,BB33,CC77', 'AA22,BB33,BB44,CC77' FROM DUAL)
SELECT COLUMNA,
REGEXP_SUBSTR(COLUMNA, 'BB[^,]+') AS COLA_BB,
COLUMNB,
REGEXP_SUBSTR(COLUMNB, 'BB[^,]+') AS COLB_BB
FROM cteData
WHERE REGEXP_SUBSTR(COLUMNA, 'BB[^,]+') = REGEXP_SUBSTR(COLUMNB, 'BB[^,]+')
dbfiddle here