Question

I have a Keywords table with the fields KeywordsEn and KeywordsFr.
I have another MediaObjectsMetadata with the field Values.

I need to check that the Value field contains at least one of the words from the Keywords table (either in KeywordsEn or KeywordsFr field).

I thought I would use the Contains function like this, where @priorityKeywords contains all the KeywordsEn and KeywordsFr concatenated with OR, but then I have over 16000 characters in my string, and the Contains function can only allow 4000.

Part of my SP

SELECT FKMediaObjectId
FROM dbo.gs_MediaObjectMetadata
WHERE UPPER([Description]) = 'KEYWORDS'
AND FKMediaObjectId >= 
  (SELECT TOP 1 MediaObjectId 
  FROM dbo.gs_MediaObject 
  WHERE DateAdded > @lastcheck 
  ORDER BY MediaObjectId) 
  AND Contains([Value] , @priorityKeywords);

C# function which generates @priorityKeywords

public static string GetPriorityKeywordsList()
{
  string keywordString = String.Empty;

  using (IDataReader dr = GetCommandPriorityKeywordsList().ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection))
  {
    while (dr.Read())
    {
      if (keywordString.Length > 0)
      {
         keywordString += " OR ";
      }
      // max 4000 chars allowed in COntains sql function of sp
      keywordString += "'" + dr["KeywordEn"].ToString() + "' OR '" + dr["KeywordFr"].ToString() + "'";
     }
    }
        return keywordString;
}

What solution would you recommend for my stored procedure?

Edit (Solution):

Here is the solution proposed by Andomar, adapted to my situation:

select  *
from    gs_MediaObjectMetadata yt
where   
UPPER([Description]) = 'KEYWORDS'
AND  not exists
        (
        select  *
        from    dbo.fnSplit(Replace(yt.Value, '''', ''''''), ',') split
        where   split.item in (select KeywordEn from gs_Keywords) or split.item in (select KeywordFr from gs_Keywords)
        )

Answer 1

If you’re using SQL Server 2008, you can use a table-valued parameter to pass the list of keywords to the stored procedure. You can use the variable like you would use a table, in a join or an in clause. For example:

use testdatabase
go
if exists (select * from sys.procedures where name = 'TestProc')
    drop procedure TestProc
if exists (select * from sys.types where name = 'TestProcList')
    drop type TestProcList
go
create type TestProcList as table (keyword varchar(50))
go
create procedure dbo.TestProc(
    @list TestProcList readonly)
as
select  *
from    YourTable
where   value in (select keyword from @list)
go

EDIT: if you have more than one keyword in the value field, you could use a split function. For example:

select  *
from    YourTable yt
where   not exists
        (
        select  *
        from    dbo.fnSplit(yt.value, " ") split
        where   split.item not in (select keyword from @list)
        )

This demands that all keywords in the value column (separated by a space) are present in the @list parameter.