find string from delimited values from delimited values (Oracle PL-SQL) - oracle

Question

How can write a query for Oracle database such that I can find a comma delimited list of values from a column that contains comma delimited list of values. The :parameter passed to sql statement is also a comma delimited values that user selected.
For e.g
We have a column in tables that contains
1 | 'A','B','C'
2 | 'C','A'
3 | 'A','B'
on the web application interface we have multi select box that shows
A
B
C
and allows user to to select one or more items.
I want rows 1 and 2 to show up if they select A and B, If they select A only the all three should show up b/c all rows 1 to 3 have 'A' value in it.

Answer 1

This example will hopefully help and it matches the values irrespective of which order they appear in the string in the DB record.
Create example table:
CREATE TABLE t
(val VARCHAR2(100));
Insert records:
INSERT INTO t VALUES
('1|''A'',''B'',''C''');
INSERT INTO t VALUES
('2|''C'',''A''');
INSERT INTO t VALUES
('3|''A'',''B''');
Check values:
SELECT * FROM t;
1|'A','B','C'
2|'C','A'
3|'A','B'
Check solution for 'A':
SELECT val
FROM t
WHERE REGEXP_LIKE(val, '(A)');
1|'A','B','C'
2|'C','A'
3|'A','B'
Check solution for A and B
SELECT val
FROM t
WHERE REGEXP_LIKE(val, '(A|B).*(A|B)');
1|'A','B','C'
3|'A','B'
If you want to make sure the 1| part of the result isn't matched by anything then you could query using:
SELECT val
FROM t
WHERE REGEXP_LIKE(val, '(.\|.*)(A)');
and
SELECT val
FROM t
WHERE REGEXP_LIKE(val, '(.\|.*)(A|B).*(A|B)');
Hope this helps...

Answer 2

You could use a where clause with varying number of bind values, depending on the number of selected options:
TEST#PRJ> create table t (c varchar2(100));
TEST#PRJ> insert into t values ('2 | ''C'',''A''');
TEST#PRJ> insert into t values ('3 | ''A'',''B''');
TEST#PRJ> select * from t where c like '%''A''%' and c like '%''B''%';
C
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | 'A','B','C'
3 | 'A','B'
TEST#PRJ> select * from t where c like '%''A''%';
C
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | 'A','B','C'
2 | 'C','A'
3 | 'A','B'
If the values are stored in order you could use a single bind value:
TEST#PRJ> select * from t where c like '%''A''%''B''%';
C
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | 'A','B','C'
3 | 'A','B'