Question

I am trying to create a query in SQL Server that will search for all combinations of numbers in a table.

COMBINATION TABLE

CombID     Comb_Num1     Comb_NumTwo     Comb_NumThree
   1           1              2                3
   2           2              10               15
   3           5              20               60
   4           10             22               50
   5           22             33               46           

The numbers range from 1-60, and the same number is not repeated within a combination. Order does not matter.

ENTRY TABLE

EntryID     NumberOne     NumberTwo     NumberThree     NumberFour     NumberFive
   1            10           22             33              46              50
   2            2            10             15              22              40
   3            24           33             40              45              50
   4            5            10             22              40              60
   5            2            6              10              22              40
   6            2            10             22              50              60
   7            10           22             33              46              50

The numbers range from 1-60, and the same number is not repeated within an entry. Order does not matter.

Results

• Searching for combination 1 would produce no results
• Searching for combination 2 would return EntryID 2
• Searching for combination 3 would produce no results
• Searching for combination 4 would return EntryID 1, 6, 7
• Searching for combination 5 would return EntryID 1, 7

The query should also show for each record in the Combination table how many times it has appeared in the Entry table. It should exclude the combinations that don’t appear in the Entry table.

Answer 1

Try:

select distinct e.EntryID
from entry e, combination c
where c.Comb_Num1 in (e.NumberOne, e.NumberTwo, e.NumberThree, e.NumberFour, e.NumberFive)
and   c.Comb_Num2 in (e.NumberOne, e.NumberTwo, e.NumberThree, e.NumberFour, e.NumberFive)
and   c.Comb_Num3 in (e.NumberOne, e.NumberTwo, e.NumberThree, e.NumberFour, e.NumberFive)
and   c.CombID = @CombID

– to return matching entries for a specific @CombID