I'm writing a SQL script that we want our accounting team to be able to edit, without dealing with engineering.
The general idea is to have a .sql script, which defines some variables at the top of the query, and then has several complex queries below it that use those variables.
The problem we have is that we want the accounting team to be able to specify the filter to use. For example:
DECLARE #year INT
DECLARE #month INT
DECLARE #filter VARCHAR(30);
SET #year = 2010
SET #month = 7
SET #filter = '%test%'
Here the team can change the month and the year that the subsequent queries return. They can also define ONE filter element, in this example, excluding any records where the username has the string 'test' in it.
My question is whether or not there is a way to specify OR's to a LIKE(). Eg, ideally we'd have the #filter variable as something like '%test%, or %other%. Now I know that's not real syntax, but I'm wondering if there is syntax that lets me achieve that. I've scowered MSDN on the LIKE() syntax with no joy. Should I use some different query expression?
Probably the simplest thing to do would be to just have multiple parameters, though it's not pretty:
SET #filter_1 = '%test%'
SET #filter_2 = '%foo%'
SET #filter_3 = '%'
SET #filter_4 = '%'
SELECT *
FROM BAR
WHERE var LIKE #filter_1
OR var LIKE #filter_2
OR var LIKE #filter_3
OR var LIKE #filter_4
OR var LIKE #filter_5
By defaulting them to %, they will always match by default.
You could also use dynamic SQL and a local table variable. Basically, create a local table with one column, allow them to change the INSERT statements into that table, then define a loop that iterates over the contents of that table to dynamically generate the LIKE clauses. It would work, but it would be a bit more code. The example above is quick and dirty, but I'd guess it's probably sufficient for what you need to do.
I'd use a join with a LIKE predicate. You can execute the following code sample in a query window to see how this works:
DECLARE #tblFilter TABLE
(sFilter nvarchar(MAX) NOT NULL);
INSERT #tblFilter
SELECT * FROM (VALUES ('%one%'), ('%two%'), ('%three%')) v(s);
DECLARE #tblData TABLE
(iId int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY,
sData nvarchar(MAX));
INSERT #tblData(sData)
SELECT * FROM (VALUES ('one'), ('two three'), ('four')) v(s);
SELECT DISTINCT iId
FROM #tblData d
JOIN #tblFilter f ON d.sData LIKE f.sFilter;
I assume that the different query strings are in the #tblFilter table, which could be a TVP, coming from XML values, from comma-separated values, from a temp table or whatever.
Related
I would like to create a function that returns a column based on input from three other columns. As temporary tables are not allowed within functions, is it possible to create a table variable from three input columns?
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.convert_value(
#CustomerID VARCHAR(MAX),
#CustomerValue VARCHAR(MAX),
#CustomerDescription VARCHAR(MAX)
)
RETURNS FLOAT
AS BEGIN
DECLARE #CustomerTable TABLE (
UniquePatientUID VARCHAR(MAX),
ResultValue VARCHAR(MAX),
PracticeDescription VARCHAR(MAX)
);
-- How can I insert #UniquePatientUID, #ResultValue and #PracticeDescription into #CustomerTable
END
The context of this question is that I have a SQL script that uses temporary tables and many UPDATE and ALTER TABLE statements, that I need to convert into a function. That script begins with the three columns mentioned, and adds a fourth column, Converted_Value, which is calculated with several hundred lines of code and manipulating temporary tables. Is there any hope here?
A table variable insert is really not different than a regular insert. Don't use temp tables. You can alter the table as well, or just declare it initially with that fourth column and allow it to be NULL.
INSERT INTO #CustomerTable (UniquePatientUID, ResultValue, PracticeDescription)
VALUES(#CustomerID, #CustomerValue, #CustomerDescription);
Don't forget to return the FLOAT.
Table Variable is a table so, you can just use INSERT INTO ... VALUES....
INSERT INTO #CustomerTable (UniquePatientUID,ResultValue,PracticeDescription )
VALUES
(#UniquePatientUID, #ResultValue , #PracticeDescription)
Unless you need a table variable for some specific reason, why not just work with the variables as a derived table expression? i.e.
;with inputs (UniquePatientUID, ResultValue, PracticeDescription) as
(
select #UniquePatientUID, #ResultValue, #PracticeDescription
)
select *
from inputs
Table variables fall out of scope after the function call, and you can't pass table types in or out of functions either. So really all a table variable does here is serve as a means of place keeping that's more familiar to SQL developers. But they're not free, which is the only reason I'm curious what your use case is.
If you don't need to return them as a set or something similar, you can just interact with the variables directly too.
I'm new to SQL so please forgive me if I use incorrect terminology and my question sounds confused.
I've been tasked with writing a stored procedure which will be sent 3 variables as strings (varchar I think). I need to take two of the variables and remove text from the end of the variable and only from the end.
The strings/text I need to remove from the end of the variables are
co
corp
corporation
company
lp
llc
ltd
limited
For example this string
Global Widgets LLC
would become
Global Widgets
However it should only apply once so
Global Widgets Corporation LLC
Should become
Global Widgets Corporation
I then need to use the altered variables to do a SQL query.
This is to be used as a backup for an integration piece we have which makes a callout to another system. The other system takes the same variables and uses Regex to remove the strings from the end of variables.
I've tried different combinations of PATINDEX, SUBSTRING, REPLACE, STUFF but cannot seem to come up with something that will do the job.
===============================================================
Edit: I want to thank everyone for the answers provided so far, but I left out some information that I didn't think was important but judging by the answers seems like it would affect the processing.
My proc will start something like
ALTER PROC [dbo].[USP_MyDatabaseTable] #variableToBeAltered nvarchar(50)
AS
I will then need to remove all , and . characters. I've already figured out how to do this. I will then need to do the processing on #variableToBeAltered (technically there will be two variables) to remove the strings I listed previously. I must then remove all spaces from #variableToBeAltered. (Again I figured that part out). Then finally I will use #variableToBeAltered in my SQL query something like
SELECT [field1] AS myField
,[field2] AS myOtherField
FROM [MyData].[dbo].[MyDatabaseTable]
WHERE [field1] = (#variableToBeAltered);
I hope this information is more useful.
I'd keep all of your suffixes in a table to make this a little easier. You can then perform code like this either within a query or against a variable.
DECLARE #company_name VARCHAR(50) = 'Global Widgets Corporation LLC'
DECLARE #Suffixes TABLE (suffix VARCHAR(20))
INSERT INTO #Suffixes (suffix) VALUES ('LLC'), ('CO'), ('CORP'), ('CORPORATION'), ('COMPANY'), ('LP'), ('LTD'), ('LIMITED')
SELECT #company_name = SUBSTRING(#company_name, 1, LEN(#company_name) - LEN(suffix))
FROM #Suffixes
WHERE #company_name LIKE '%' + suffix
SELECT #company_name
The keys here are that you are only matching with strings that end in the suffix and it uses SUBSTRING rather than REPLACE to avoid accidentally removing copies of any of the suffixes from the middle of the string.
The #Suffixes table is a table variable here, but it makes more sense for you to just create it and fill it as a permanent table.
The query will just find the one row (if any) that matches its suffix with the end of your string. If a match is found then the variable will be set to a substring with the length of the suffix removed from the end. There will usually be a trailing space, but for a VARCHAR that will just get dropped off.
There are still a couple of potential issues to be aware of though...
First, if you have a company name like "Watco" then the "co" would be a false positive here. I'm not sure what can be done about that other than maybe making your suffixes include a leading space.
Second, if one suffix ends with one of your other suffixes then the ordering that they get applied could be a problem. You could get around this by only applying the row with the greatest length for suffix, but it gets a little more complicated, so I've left that out for now.
Building on the answer given by Tom H, but applying across the entire table:
set nocount on;
declare #suffixes table(tag nvarchar(20));
insert into #suffixes values('co');
insert into #suffixes values('corp');
insert into #suffixes values('corporation');
insert into #suffixes values('company');
insert into #suffixes values('lp');
insert into #suffixes values('llc');
insert into #suffixes values('ltd');
insert into #suffixes values('limited');
declare #companynames table(entry nvarchar(100),processed bit default 0);
insert into #companynames values('somecompany llc',0);
insert into #companynames values('business2 co',0);
insert into #companynames values('business3',0);
insert into #companynames values('business4 lpx',0);
while exists(select * from #companynames where processed = 0)
begin
declare #currentcompanyname nvarchar(100) = (select top 1 entry from #companynames where processed = 0);
update #companynames set processed = 1 where entry = #currentcompanyname;
update #companynames
set entry = SUBSTRING(entry, 1, LEN(entry) - LEN(tag))
from #suffixes
where entry like '%' + tag
end
select * from #companynames
You can use a query like below:
-- Assuming that you can maintain all patterns in a table or a temp table
CREATE TABLE tbl(pattern varchar(100))
INSERT INTO tbl values
('co'),('llc'),('beta')
--#a stores the string you need to manipulate, #lw & #b are variables to aid
DECLARE #a nvarchar(100), #b nvarchar(100), #lw varchar(100)
SET #a='alpha beta gamma'
SET #b=''
-- #t is a flag
DECLARE #t int
SET #t=0
-- Below is a loop
WHILE(#t=0 OR LEN(#a)=0 )
BEGIN
-- Store the current last word in the #lw variable
SET #lw=reverse(substring(reverse(#a),1, charindex(' ', reverse(#a)) -1))
-- check if the word is in pattern dictionary. If yes, then Voila!
SELECT #t=1 FROM tbl WHERE #lw like pattern
-- remove the last word from #a
SET #a=LEFT(#a,LEN(#a)-LEN(#lw))
IF (#t<>1)
BEGIN
-- all words which were not pattern are joined back onto this stack
SET #b=CONCAT(#lw,#b)
END
END
-- get back the remaining word
SET #a=CONCAT(#a,#b)
SELECT #a
drop table tbl
Do note that this method overcomes Tom's problem of
if you have a company name like "Watco" then the "co" would be a false positive here. I'm not sure what can be done about that other than maybe making your suffixes include a leading space.
use the replace function in SQL 2012,
declare #var1 nvarchar(20) = 'ACME LLC'
declare #var2 nvarchar(20) = 'LLC'
SELECT CASE
WHEN ((PATINDEX('%'+#var2+'%',#var1) <= (LEN(#var1)-LEN(#var2)))
Or (SUBSTRING(#var1,PATINDEX('%'+#var2+'%',#var1)-1,1) <> SPACE(1)))
THEN #var1
ELSE
REPLACE(#var1,#var2,'')
END
Here is another way to overcome the 'Runco Co' situation.
declare #var1 nvarchar(20) = REVERSE('Runco Co')
declare #var2 nvarchar(20) = REVERSE('Co')
Select REVERSE(
CASE WHEN(CHARINDEX(' ',#var1) > LEN(#var2)) THEN
SUBSTRING(#var1,PATINDEX('%'+#var2+'%',#var1)+LEN(#var2),LEN(#var1)-LEN(#var2))
ELSE
#var1
END
)
I am trying to write a SQL query in SQL Server 2008 R2 that will allow a user to search a database table by a number of parameters. The way this should work is, my user enters his criteria and the query looks for all close matches, while ignoring those criteria for which the user did not enter a value.
I've written my query using LIKE and parameters, like so:
select item
from [item]
where a like #a and b like #b and c like #c ...
where 'a', 'b', and 'c' are table columns, and my # parameters all default to '%' wildcards. This goes on for about twenty different columns, and that leads to my problem: if this query is entered as is, no input, just wildcards, it returns no results. Yet this table contains over 30,000 rows, so an all-wildcard query should return the whole table. Obviously I'm going about this the wrong way, but I don't know how to correct it.
I can't use 'contains' or 'freetext', as those look for whole words, and I need to match user input no matter where it occurs in the actual column value. I've tried breaking my query up into individual steps using 'intersect', but that doesn't change anything. Does anyone know a better way to do this?
To allow for null inputs, this is a good pattern:
select * from my table where ColA LIKE isnull(#a, ColA) AND ColB like isnull(#b, ColB)
This avoids having to construct and execute a dynamic SQL statement (and creating possible SQL injection issues.)
my # parameters all default to '%' wildcards
Don't do this. Default them to null. The way to disregard empty parameters is with a short circuit:
(#a IS NULL OR #a LIKE a)
Depending on how you want to handle missing data in the column, you might want a third term, because null will not match LIKE statements:
(#a IS NULL OR a IS NULL OR #a LIKE a)
How can I search a SQL database with multiple "%" wildcards?
Slowly. SQL is suboptimal for doing text comparisons. The best approach is to perform this search somewhere else, or at least structure your data to facilitate these kinds of queries. If you know you'll be performing a lot of these queries, consider redesigning your schema in the shape of a suffix tree. At an absolute bare minimum, do something so that every LIKE match is suffix-only, meaning LIKE 'xxx%' and never LIKE '%xxx' or LIKE 'x%x'. The latter two preclude the use of indexes. And put an index on every column you need to search.
Thanks for the guidance, all. It turns out that the table I'm querying can easily contain null values in the columns I'm searching against, so I expanded my query to say "where (a like #a or a is null) and ... " and it works now.
Personally, I'd do this in the application layer (assuming you have one), and build the query around the parameters the user supplies, eliminating the ones they don't.
For example, the following bit of code builds the query in SQL, where only the parameters the user has supplied (not null) are included in the where clause.
NOTE: This is very crude, as it doesn't take into account AND's if the first parameter if null, and it doesn't remove the WHERE clause if no parameters are supplied. If you let me know what language your application layer is built in, I'll provide a better example. (This is purely pseudo-code!)
DECLARE #a VARCHAR(100) = '''%SomeValue%''', #b VARCHAR(100)= '''%AnotherValue%''', #c VARCHAR(100)
DECLARE #SQL VARCHAR(MAX) = 'SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE'
IF #a IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
SET #SQL += ' ColA LIKE ' + #a
END
IF #b IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
SET #SQL += ' AND ColA LIKE ' + #b
END
IF #c IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
SET #SQL += ' AND ColC LIKE ' + #c
END
PRINT #SQL
--EXEC(#SQL)
Output:
SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE ColA = '%SomeValue%' AND ColB = '%AnotherValue%'
I need to execute a search query in SQL Server where I need to filter out data based upon an user input textfield.
The problem is, this query needs to be executed on several tables (so I only know the tablecolumns at runtime).
This is the query I have:
SELECT * FROM [BTcegeka.C2M].[dbo].[Lookup_Country] WHERE Name LIke '%test%'
Now the problem is I need to do the Like function on every column (I only know the columnname at runtime) in the table. I am calling this query from an ASP.NET website. The user selects a table from a dropdownlist and can then enter the search field.
This is what I really want to accomplish:
SELECT * FROM [BTcegeka.C2M].[dbo].[Lookup_Country] WHERE * LIke '%test%'
Obviously 'Where * Like' Fails. How can I accomplish this?
You can query all columns in a table like:
select name from sys.columns where object_id = object_id('YourTable')
Then you can construct a query that does a like for each column.
Another approach is to create a calculated column called SearchField that contains a concatenation of all strings you'd like to search for. Then you can search like:
create table #tmp (id int identity, col1 varchar(10), col2 varchar(10),
SearchField as col1 + '|' + col2 persisted)
insert #tmp (col1, col2) values
('alfa', 'beta'),
('gamma', 'DELTA'),
('GAMMA', 'delta')
select * from #tmp where SearchField like '%alfa%'
Try using your SQL query like this.
SELECT * FROM [BTcegeka.C2M].[dbo].[Lookup_Country]
WHERE
COL1 LIke '%test%'
OR COL2 LIke '%test%'
OR COL3 LIke '%test%'
You may use AND instead of OR if your requirement needs that.
If you know the column names at run time, then you should build you query in .NET before passing it to sql. You can build it with the correct column name. This way you can account also for the type of the column you search in.
Careful though this path you chose is prone to SQL injection so before sending a query to the SQL you should check it.
If you really need to do this you can search in sqlserver meta tables and find the description of selected user table. Make a good use of this data is easy and you can make any sql you want with this information, but performance may not the that good
you have to use dynamic sql for implementing this. Your column name needs to be passed as parameter to this stored procedure or if you dont want to create stored procedure just declare one paramter and assign the value selected from the drop down list to it and use that in the query.
create procedure sp_dynamicColumn
(
#columnName varchar(10)
)
as
begin
declare #DYNAMICSQL nvarchar(4000);
SET #DYNAMICSQL = 'Select * from [BTcegeka.C2M].[dbo].[Lookup_Country] where '+ #columnName + ' like ''%test%'''
EXECUTE SP_EXECUTESQL #DYNAMICSQL
end
go
how can i write the store procedure for searching particular string in a column of table, for given set of strings (CSV string).
like : select * from xxx where tags like ('oscar','rahman','slumdog')
how can i write the procedure for that combination of tags.
To create a comma seperated string...
You could then apply this list to Oded example to create the LIKE parts of the WHERE cluase on the fly.
DECLARE #pos int, #curruntLocation char(20), #input varchar(2048)
SELECT #pos=0
SELECT #input = 'oscar,rahman,slumdog'
SELECT #input = #input + ','
CREATE TABLE #tempTable (temp varchar(100) )
WHILE CHARINDEX(',',#input) > 0
BEGIN
SELECT #pos=CHARINDEX(',',#input)
SELECT #curruntLocation = RTRIM(LTRIM(SUBSTRING(#input,1,#pos-1)))
INSERT INTO #tempTable (temp) VALUES (#curruntLocation)
SELECT #input=SUBSTRING(#input,#pos+1,2048)
END
SELECT * FROM #tempTable
DR0P TABLE #tempTable
First off, the use of like for exact matches is sub-optimal. Might as well use =, and if doing so, you can use the IN syntax:
select * from xxx
where tags IN ('oscar', 'rahman', 'slumdog')
I am guessing you are not looking for an exact match, but for any record where the tags field contains all of the tags.
This would be something like this:
select * from xxx
where tags like '%oscar%'
and tags like '%rahman%'
and tags like '%slumdog%'
This would be not be very fast or performant though.
Think about moving this kind of logic into your application, where it is faster and easier to do.
Edit:
Following the comments - there are lots of examples on how to parse delimited strings out there. You can put these in a table and use dynamic sql to generate your query.
But, this will have bad performance and SQL Server will not be able to cache query plans for this kind of thing. As I said above - think about moving this kind of logic to application level.