How select rows which contains at least one value from other table and is not equal? TSQL - sql

Question

As per subject, I have a problem with query. Problems occurs because table is not normalized. Schema of DB looks like:
Table A Columns:
ID - A,A,B,B,C,D (not unique)
AR - "N10 N12", "N1 N2 N3", "N1"
AR in A table is char(100)
ARID in AWS table is char(6)
The result from subselect is a column, with rows of chars. It can be inserted in a temporary table, but I suppose any other variable type can't store it.
It's simplified example, I want to select all rows where AR contains at least N1. In real case I have a lot of values to find in AR column, from other table.
I tried:
Contains - it will work, but #table variable can't be used with this statement
Inner Join and subquery in query - generally it works, but it's problem, it returns only rows where values are equals. For example, when I'm selecting for N1 it will be returned, but "N1 N2 N3" not and it should be in results.
My actual query:
select *
from A
where AR in (select ARID
From AWS
group by ARID
having count(*)>2)
order by EvaluationTime desc
Thanks and Regards,
B.

Answer 1

Given two tables with the values you've provided (tell me if there are more), you'll first need a way to split the values in A.AR into manageable strings. I use this User Defined Function:
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[UDF_StringDelimiter]
/*********************************************************
** Takes Parameter "LIST" and transforms it for use **
** to select individual values or ranges of values. **
** **
** EX: 'This,is,a,test' = 'This' 'Is' 'A' 'Test' **
*********************************************************/
(
#LIST VARCHAR(8000)
,#DELIMITER VARCHAR(255)
)
RETURNS #TABLE TABLE
(
[RowID] INT IDENTITY
,[Value] VARCHAR(255)
)
WITH SCHEMABINDING
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE
#LISTLENGTH AS SMALLINT
,#LISTCURSOR AS SMALLINT
,#VALUE AS VARCHAR(255)
;
SELECT
#LISTLENGTH = LEN(#LIST) - LEN(REPLACE(#LIST,#DELIMITER,'')) + 1
,#LISTCURSOR = 1
,#VALUE = ''
;
WHILE #LISTCURSOR <= #LISTLENGTH
BEGIN
INSERT INTO #TABLE (Value)
SELECT
CASE
WHEN #LISTCURSOR < #LISTLENGTH
THEN SUBSTRING(#LIST,1,PATINDEX('%' + #DELIMITER + '%',#LIST) - 1)
ELSE SUBSTRING(#LIST,1,LEN(#LIST))
END
;
SET #LIST = STUFF(#LIST,1,PATINDEX('%' + #DELIMITER + '%',#LIST),'')
;
SET #LISTCURSOR = #LISTCURSOR + 1
;
END
;
RETURN
;
END
;
Then, with those two tables:
DECLARE #TABLE TABLE (ID CHAR(1), AR VARCHAR(55));
INSERT INTO #TABLE VALUES ('A','N1 N3 N4');
INSERT INTO #TABLE VALUES ('B','N2');
INSERT INTO #TABLE VALUES ('C','N1');
INSERT INTO #TABLE VALUES ('D','N5');
INSERT INTO #TABLE VALUES ('E','N2 N1');
DECLARE #TABLE2 TABLE (RowID INT IDENTITY, ARID VARCHAR(55));
INSERT INTO #TABLE2 (ARID) VALUES ('N1');
Using a CROSS APPLY and LEFT JOIN, I get the responses:
SELECT A.ID AS [A.ID], A.AR AS [A.AR],B.ARID AS [B.ARID]
FROM #TABLE A
CROSS APPLY dbo.UDF_StringDelimiter(A.AR,' ') X
INNER JOIN #TABLE2 B
ON B.ARID = X.Value
ORDER BY ID
;
Returns:
A.ID A.AR B.ARID
-----------------------------------
A N1 N3 N4 N1
C N1 N1
E N2 N1 N1
Of course you could also group this, return it as a delimited list, etc. Give me more details and maybe I can give you a better response.

Answer 2

If you are using 2 tables, CROSS APPLY is your friend.
create table #ARID(id varchar(10), ar varchar(100));
insert into #ARID values
('a', 'n1 n2'),
('a', 'n10 n11'),
('b', 'n1'),
('b', 'n11 n13 15'),
('c', 'n3'),
('c', 'n14 n12');
This is the table that contains values to search:
create table #TO_SEARCH(val varchar(10))
insert into #TO_SEARCH values ('n10'), ('n11');
And this simple query returns each row that contains al least one of these values:
SELECT ca.*
FROM #TO_SEARCH ts
CROSS APPLY (SELECT id, ar
FROM #ARID
WHERE ar LIKE ('%' + ts.val + '%')
) ca
You can invert the tables, the result is the same:
SELECT id, ar
FROM #ARID
CROSS APPLY (SELECT val from #TO_SEARCH) ts
WHERE ar LIKE ('%' + ts.val + '%')
+----+------------+
| id | ar |
+----+------------+
| a | n10 n11 |
+----+------------+
| a | n10 n11 |
+----+------------+
| b | n11 n13 15 |
+----+------------+
Can check it here: http://rextester.com/CUEU92118