Reconstruct String for Stored Procedure Oracle - oracle

Question

In a view i under the SOURCE column I have the following values.
SRC - TERM - randomtext - LOCATION (Just a FYI on the format of the source column)
ABC DE RANDOMJIBBERISH MORE RANDOMJIBBERISH FORWARD
ARY HES RANDOMJIBBERISH MORE RANDOMJIBBERISH BACKWARD
IGHE UER RANDOMJIBBERISH MORE RANDOMJIBBERISH LEFT
Now I have a query that needs to lookup on that view BASED on the source. This one works perfectly fine.
SELECT
t.DATE_, t.PX_LAST
FROM
THIS.TABLE_NEW t
WHERE
t.DATE_ >= '2003-03-02'
AND t.DATE_ <= '2013-03-02'
AND t.SOURCE LIKE 'ABC DE % FORWARD' --Where the magic happens
AND t.SOURCE LIKE '%'||'1M'||'%'
AND t.PX_LAST is NOT NULL
ORDER BY
t.DATE_ ASC;
Now, the issue is, when I try to implement this in a stored procedure, I will need to insert the percent sign in the parameters I get. This doesn't work, particularly the part where it looks for the source using the inSource
PROCEDURE Get_It
(
inSource VARCHAR2,
inStartDate DATE,
inEndDate DATE,
inLength VARCHAR2,
inRC1 OUT SYS_REFCURSOR
) AS
BEGIN
OPEN inRC1 FOR
SELECT t.DATE_, t.PX_LAST
FROM THIS.TABLE_NEW t WHERE
t.DATE_ >= inStartDate
AND t.DATE_ <= inEndDate
AND t.SOURCE LIKE inSource --Where the magic needs to happen
AND t.SOURCE LIKE '%'||length||'%'
AND t.PX_LAST is NOT NULL
ORDER BY t.DATE_ ASC;
END GET_IT;
So basically I need to insert a percent sign in the MIDDLE of the string (inSource), between the last and second-last word, at all times. I was able to do it in the query because I can manually put it in the string, but in the actual stored procedure I don't know how I can manipulate the string.

Answer 1

Assuming you want to pass in a value of inSource like 'ABC DE FORWARD' and have the procedure translate that to 'ABC DE % FORWARD' - with the % always between the second and third word - then you can mess around with chopping up and reconstructing the string, or you can do a simple regexp_replace():
AND t.SOURCE LIKE regexp_replace(inSource, ' ', ' % ', 1, 2)
AND t.SOURCE LIKE '%'||inLength||'%'
This replaces a space with a space-padded percentage sign, starting as position 1 (i.e. the start of the string) and only applying to the second instance - so it skips over the first space and only affects the one between the second and third words.
To demonstrate this:
select regexp_replace('ABC DE FORWARD', ' ', ' % ', 1, 2)
from dual;
REGEXP_REPLACE('
----------------
ABC DE % FORWARD

Answer 2

Looks to me that your query is fine but your inLength parameter is not being used correctly in the cursor definition.
Based on your edit clarification there are two possible solutions.
First option: Pass inSource as two varchars which would be all of the string up until the space and then the last word
PROCEDURE Get_It
(
inSourceFirst VARCHAR2,
inSourceLast VARCHAR2,
inStartDate DATE,
inEndDate DATE,
inLength VARCHAR2,
inRC1 OUT SYS_REFCURSOR
) AS
BEGIN
OPEN inRC1 FOR
SELECT t.DATE_, t.PX_LAST
FROM THIS.TABLE_NEW t WHERE
t.DATE_ >= inStartDate
AND t.DATE_ <= inEndDate
AND t.SOURCE LIKE inSourceFirst || '%' || inSourceLast
AND t.SOURCE LIKE '%'|| inLength ||'%'
AND t.PX_LAST is NOT NULL
ORDER BY t.DATE_ ASC;
END GET_IT;
Second option: Use regexp_substr() function More here. Your inSource string would then be replace by regexp_replace with two regexp_substr function call grabbing what is before and after the space with the & character appended in between. Something like...
regexp_substr('SPACE MAN BEAR PIG DOG CAT','[^ ]+{4}',1,5) || ' % ' || regexp_substr('SPACE MAN BEAR PIG DOG CAT','[^ ]+',1,6)