Re: How to use like with a list

From: pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org
[mailto:pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org] On Behalf Of Gauthier, Dave
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 2:56 PM
To: pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: [GENERAL] How to use like with a list

Hi:

How can I search on a csv list of values using "like" where each value is to
be appended with a wildcarded string?

Example:

list = 'jo,mo,do,fo'

I want to pull all names from a table with name like.. 'jol%' or 'mol%'
or'dol%' or 'sol%'

would match "jolly, molly, moleman,dollface, solarboy"

notice they all have the same "l%' wildcarded suffix.

I'm really not that lazy, just trying to keep this in a simgle query in
order to minimize network hits which will reduce overall wallclock
performance. This thing wil be running in a programming loop.

Thanks in Advance !

Do you need a solution for your specific example or something more
generalized?

You can make use of "substing" (on the input) and "split_to_array" (on the
csv list) to efficiently solve your stated problem (possibly with indexes).

Something more general would be to convert:

'jo,mo,do,fo' INTO '^(jo|mo|do|fo)L.*' (upper case "L" for clarity) and then
use "regexp_matches"

David J.