SQL WHERE matching any value in any column - sql

Question

I need a table A with 4 columns for order numbers: Order1, Order2, Order3, Order4 (I know, it's horrible, but that's a given).
And I have to find the records in table B, where the match is that any value in any order column in table A could be in any order in column B:
A.Order1 = B.Order1 OR
A.Order1 = B.Order2 OR
A.Order1 = B.Order3 OR
A.Order1 = B.Order4 OR
A.Order2 = B.Order1 etc
Is there a better way to write this?
I dread the moment they tell me they want to use 5 or 6 columns.
EDITS TO ORIGINAL QUESTION
This is for SQL Server 2008 R2
Table B also has 4 order columns with order numbers
I'm looking for any order number in any order column in Table A to match any order number in any order column in Table B.
There's no anticipated most likely finding

Answer 1

You can unpivot the columns in one table using a cross apply and then check if the value from the cross apply is in any of the columns from the other table.
It does not automatically work if you add new columns but you will only have to add them in one or two places.
SQL Fiddle
MS SQL Server 2014 Schema Setup:
create table A
(
Order1 int,
Order2 int,
Order3 int,
Order4 int
)
create table B
(
Order1 int,
Order2 int,
Order3 int,
Order4 int
)
insert into A values
(1, 1, 40, 10),
(2, 2, 2, 20)
insert into B values
(3, 3, 3, 30),
(4, 4, 4, 40)
Query 1:
select *
from A
where exists (
select *
from B
cross apply (values(B.Order1),(B.Order2),(B.Order3),(B.Order4)) as X(O)
where X.O in (A.Order1, A.Order2, A.Order3, A.Order4)
)
Results:
| Order1 | Order2 | Order3 | Order4 |
|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| 1 | 1 | 40 | 10 |

Answer 2

The only way to do this with the model design you have is something (as #GordonLinoff suggested) like this:
where b.order1 in (a.order1, a.order2, a.order3, a.order4) or
b.order2 in (a.order1, a.order2, a.order3, a.order4) or
b.order3 in (a.order1, a.order2, a.order3, a.order4) or
b.order4 in (a.order1, a.order2, a.order3, a.order4)
An interesting question you might have is how can I change my data model to make this work better? ... here is how:
First you have your two tables A and B. I'm going to assume that both A and B have an unique index ID.
You can then make a support table AOrder with the following columns
AID
ORDNUM
VALUE
If you make a similar table for BOrder then to find out if a given order is the same just join on Value and you get the AID, BID, and the two order numbers.
With this design you don't care how many order numbers there are.
You could convert your current data to this design on the fly like this and get the results you want:
SELECT aord.ID as aID, bord.ID as bID, a.num as a_ordernum, b.num as b.ordernum, v
FROM (
SELECT a.ID, 1 AS num, a.order1 as V FROM a
UNION ALL
SELECT a.ID, 2 AS num, a.order2 as V FROM a
UNION ALL
SELECT a.ID, 3 AS num, a.order3 as V FROM a
UNION ALL
SELECT a.ID, 4 AS num, a.order4 as V FROM a
) aord
JOIN (
SELECT b.ID, 1 AS num, b.order1 as V FROM b
UNION ALL
SELECT b.ID, 2 AS num, b.order2 as V FROM b
UNION ALL
SELECT b.ID, 3 AS num, b.order3 as V FROM b
UNION ALL
SELECT b.ID, 4 AS num, b.order4 as V FROM b
) bord on aord.v = bord.v

Answer 3

Can you just normalize them? I'm assuming you have a SetID field grouping the 4(or more) orders in A and B, so you could have a table/view like:
select ID, srctbl, seq, order
from (
select AID as ID, 'A' as srctbl, 1 as seq, order1 as order from tblA union all
select AID, 'A' as srctbl, 2, order2 from tblA union all
select AID, 'A' as srctbl, 3, order3 from tblA union all
select AID, 'A' as srctbl, 4, order4 from tblA union all
select BID, 'B' as srctbl, 1, order1 from tblB union all
select BID, 'B' as srctbl, 2, order2 from tblB union all
select BID, 'B' as srctbl, 3, order3 from tblB union all
select BID, 'B' as srctbl, 4, order4 from tblB )
then you can say
select ID, srctbl, seq, order
from (select ID, srctbl, seq, order from tbl where srctbl = 'a') ta inner join
((select ID, srctbl, seq, order from tbl where srctbl = 'b') tb on
ta.order = tb.order
Or, as a CTE:
WITH orders (ID, srctbl, SEQ, orderVal)
AS (
SELECT ID, srctbl, SEQ, orderVal
FROM (
SELECT AID AS ID, 'A' AS srctbl, 1 AS SEQ, order1 AS orderVal FROM tblA UNION ALL
SELECT AID, 'A' AS srctbl, 2, order2 FROM tblA UNION ALL
SELECT AID, 'A' AS srctbl, 3, order3 FROM tblA UNION ALL
SELECT AID, 'A' AS srctbl, 4, order4 FROM tblA UNION ALL
SELECT BID, 'B' AS srctbl, 1, order1 FROM tblB UNION ALL
SELECT BID, 'B' AS srctbl, 2, order2 FROM tblB UNION ALL
SELECT BID, 'B' AS srctbl, 3, order3 FROM tblB UNION ALL
SELECT BID, 'B' AS srctbl, 4, order4 FROM tblB )
)
SELECT ta.ID AS a_id, tb.ID AS b_ID, ta.SEQ AS a_seq, tb.SEQ AS b_seq, ta.orderVal
FROM
(SELECT ID, SEQ, orderVal FROM orders WHERE srctbl = 'a') ta INNER JOIN
(SELECT ID, SEQ, orderVal FROM orders WHERE srctbl = 'b') tb ON
ta.orderVal = tb.orderVal