How to filter and retrieve the results after a Specific characters from stored procedure in oracle plsql? - oracle

Question

I have a column "Names" in the "Employee" table that has following values. The values either contain only single name (first, last, username) or Multiple names separated with semicolon (;). I need to search the values from that table either by first name or last name or username.
I have created a procedure but it is fetching only 1st,4th,5th records. Please let me know how to retrieve 2nd and 3rd records as well.
Firstname and lastname can be given by user with minimum of 2 characters length.
Username is given entire.
Employee:
ID Name Title
1 Andrea Warbutton (awr01) Manager
2 Claire Taylor (cta02);Mark Kites (mak03);Anitha Rooney (anr06) HOD;Supervisor;Business
3 Dave Rites (dar12);Jessica Simpson (jesi10) Lead;Analyst
4 Nick Ken (nik56) Product (Local,Regional)
5 Claire Pilkington (cpt09) Sales Owner
Code:
Create or replace empl (pm_firstname varchar2(100),
pm_lastname varchar2(100),
pm_username varchar2(100))
BEGIN
Select * from Employee
where Upper(Name) like Upper(pm_firstname ||'%'||) -- this will fetch 1st,4th,5th record
OR Upper(SUBSTR(Name, INSTR(Name),' '+1)) like Upper(pm_lastname ||'%'||) -- this will fetch 1st,4th,5th record
OR upper(REGEXP_SUBSTR(Name,'\((.+)\)',1,1,NULL,1)) = Upper(pm_username); -- -- this will fetch 1st,4th,5th record
END;
End empl ;
Please let me know how to retrieve 2nd and 3rd records as well.
Desired Output:
When searched with firstname = "Andrea", the output is below
ID Name Title
1 Andrea Warbutton (awr01) Manager
When searched with firstname = "Claire", the output is below
ID Name Title
2 Claire Taylor (cta02) HOD
5 Claire Pilkington (cpt09) Sales Owner
When searched with lastname = "Simps", the output is below
ID Name Title
3 Jessica Simpson (jesi10) Analyst
When searched with username = "mak03", the output is below
ID Name Title
2 Mark Kites (mak03) Supervisor
When searched with username = "nik56", the output is below
ID Name Title
4 Nick Ken (nik56) Product (Local,Regional)

Answer 1

with
x as (select id, name, '"'||replace(name, ';', '","')||'"' xml from employee),
n as (select id, name, column_value as cv from x, xmltable(xml))
select id,
trim(regexp_substr(cv, '(\S*)(\s)')) fname,
trim(regexp_substr(cv, '(\S*)(\s)', 1, 2)) lname,
regexp_substr(cv, '\((.+)\)', 1, 1, NULL, 1) uname
from n
Your task would be much easier if you normalize these data. Above query outputs:
ID FNAME LNAME UNAME
1 Andrea Warbutton awr01
2 Claire Taylor cta02
2 Mark Kites mak03
2 Anitha Rooney anr06
3 Dave Rites dar12
3 Jessica Simpson jesi10
4 Nick Ken nik56
5 Claire Pilkington cpt09
demo
Now you can search first, last, usernames however you want. First expression finds first word, then second and word between brackets.
Edit:
I posted the table structure with just ID and Name columns. However, I
have Titles column also in the same format separated with (semicolon).
In this case, How can I Normalize Titles as well along with Names
This query worked for provided examples:
with
x as (select id, name, '"'||replace(name, ';', '","')||'"' xmln,
'"'||replace(title, ';', '","')||'"' xmlt
from employee),
n1 as (select id, trim(xn.column_value) nm, rownum rn from x, xmltable(xmln) xn),
n2 as (select id, trim(xt.column_value) tt, rownum rn from x, xmltable(xmlt) xt)
select id, trim(regexp_substr(nm, '(\S*)(\s)')) fname,
trim(regexp_substr(nm, '(\S*)(\s)', 1, 2)) lname,
regexp_substr(nm, '\((.+)\)', 1, 1, NULL, 1) uname,
tt title
from n1 join n2 using (id, rn)
dbfiddle demo
Be careful however, because we cannot write ideal query. If you have entries like Benicio Del Toro, Mary Jo Catlett, Jean Claude Van Damme, it's impossible to write correct regexp. Sometimes second word is part of lastname, sometimes it is firstname, middlename etc.
The proper way is to modify table structure, divide rows, check results and put correct values in correct name columns. Now you have lists which are hard to search and every method may return wrong results.

Answer 2

No need for PL/SQL.
SQL> with temp as
2 (select id,
3 regexp_substr(name, '[^;]+', 1, column_value) name
4 from employee cross join
5 table(cast(multiset(select level from dual
6 connect by level <= regexp_count(name, ';') + 1
7 ) as sys.odcinumberlist))
8 )
9 select id, name
10 from temp
11 where instr(name, '&search_for_name') > 0;
Enter value for search_for_name: Claire
ID NAME
---------- ------------------------------
2 Claire Taylor (cta02)
5 Claire Pilkington (cpt09)
SQL> /
Enter value for search_for_name: mak03
ID NAME
---------- ------------------------------
2 Mark Kites (mak03)
SQL>
What does it do?
temp CTE splits semi-colon separated values into rows
final query uses a simple instr function which detects whether "rows" (extracted previously) contain value you're looking for
If it must be a function, that code can be reused. As you didn't say what exactly (which datatype, I mean) you want to return, I returned a string.
SQL> create or replace function f_search (par_what in varchar2)
2 return sys.odcivarchar2list
3 is
4 retval sys.odcivarchar2list;
5 begin
6 with temp as
7 (select id,
8 regexp_substr(name, '[^;]+', 1, column_value) name
9 from employee cross join
10 table(cast(multiset(select level from dual
11 connect by level <= regexp_count(name, ';') + 1
12 ) as sys.odcinumberlist))
13 )
14 select id ||' - '|| name
15 bulk collect into retval
16 from temp
17 where instr(name, par_what) > 0;
18
19 return retval;
20 end;
21 /
Function created.
SQL> select * from table(f_search('Andrea'));
COLUMN_VALUE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 - Andrea Warbutton (awr01)
SQL> select * from table(f_search('Claire'));
COLUMN_VALUE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 - Claire Taylor (cta02)
5 - Claire Pilkington (cpt09)
SQL>