Re: How to enter lists into database: Problems with solution.

Frederick,

> "Mary Stuart" correctly. But such a query also
> seems to get results that contain only one
> of the search_attributes.
> e.g. a 32 "Peter Smith" who e.g. just has an entry
> 24 32 "hair" "brown" (and no mice hobby) is also
> found.
> I need to get only results that match the search
> completely.
> I would be happy if you could help me again.
> Thanks, Frederick

Oops. You are quite correct. Unfortunately, the query that you need is
somewhat more complicated:
SELECT people.people_id, people.name,
people.address,
people_attributes.attribute_name,
people_attributes.attribute_value
FROM people, people_attributes,
( SELECT people_id, count(*) as match_count
FROM people_attributes, search_attributes
WHERE search_id = 31
AND people_attributes.attribute_name =
search_attributes.attribute_name
AND people_attributes.attribute_value ~*
search_attributes.attribute_value ) matches,
( SELECT count(*) as attribute_count
FROM search_attributes
WHERE search_id = 31 ) searched
WHERE people.people_id = people_attributes.people_id
AND people.people_id = matches.people_id
AND matches.match_count = searched.attribute_count;

This structure will also allow you to search for, say, 4 out of 5 items
by changing the last line to:
AND matches.match_count >= (searched.attribute_count - 1);

Also, if you re-arrange the query slightly, you can turn it into a view.
The trick is to have the search_id as an output column rather than a
WHERE clause item in the sub-selects.

Have fun!

-Josh

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