Question

I have this scenario:
A table named table 1, with a column named groups.
I that column there are a range of groups which I need to split and afterwards compare with the variable myGroup

Currently I am doing this:

myGroup = 32
trueGroup = false

sql = "select * from table1 where groups like '%" & myGroup & "%'"
set rs = conn.execute(sql)

if not rs.eof
  do until rs.eof
    title = rs("title")
    groups = rs("groups")
    groupsSplitted = split(groups, ",")

    for i = lbound(groupsSplitted) to ubound(groupsSplitted)
      if cint(myGroup) = cint(groupsSplitted(i)) then
        trueGroup = true
      end if
    next

    if trueGroup
      response.write(title)
    end if
  next
end if

Is it possible to do all in the SQL line? 🙂

Answer 1

Normalise your data.

Having multiple values in a single field (comma delimited or otherwise) is a bad anti-pattern. It destroys performance by blinding the optimiser to use of indexes, and makes queries difficult to write and maintain.

Instead, change your schema to have a 1:many relationship…

CREATE TABLE map_title_to_group (
  title_id INT,
  group_id INT,
  PRIMARY KEY (group_id, title_id)
)

Then your query is simplified…

SELECT title_id FROM map_title_to_group WHERE group_id = ?

You can even then also enforce constraints…
– title_id foreign keyed to the table of titles
– group_id foreign keyed to the table of groups