Question

There is a table in Oracle with the columns:

id | start_number | end_number
---+--------------+------------
1  | 100          | 200
2  | 151          | 200
3  | 25           | 49
4  | 98           | 99  
5  | 49           | 100

There is a list of numbers (50, 99, 150).

I want an sql statement that returns all the ids where any of the numbers in the list of numbers is found equal to or between the start_number and the end_number.

Using the above example; 1, 4 and 5 should be returned.
1 – 150 is between or equal to 100 and 200
2 – none of the numbers are between or equal to 151 and 200
3 – none of the numbers are between or equal to 25 and 49
4 – 99 is between or equal to 98 and 99
5 – 50 and 99 are between or equal to 49 and 100

drop table TEMP_TABLE;

create table TEMP_TABLE(
THE_ID number,
THE_START number,
THE_END number
);

insert into TEMP_TABLE(THE_ID, THE_START, THE_END) values (1, 100, 200);
insert into TEMP_TABLE(THE_ID, THE_START, THE_END) values (2, 151, 200);
insert into TEMP_TABLE(THE_ID, THE_START, THE_END) values (3, 25, 49);
insert into TEMP_TABLE(THE_ID, THE_START, THE_END) values (4, 98, 99);
insert into TEMP_TABLE(the_id, the_start, the_end) values (5, 49, 100);

The following is the solution I came up with based on the comments and answers below plus some additional research:

SELECT
*
from
TEMP_TABLE
where
EXISTS (select * from(
select column_value as id 
from table(SYS.DBMS_DEBUG_VC2COLL(50,99,150)) 
)
where id
BETWEEN TEMP_TABLE.the_start AND TEMP_TABLE.the_end
)

This works too:

SELECT
*
from
TEMP_TABLE
where
EXISTS (select * from(
select column_value as id 
from table(sys.ku$_vcnt(50,99,150)) 
)
where id
BETWEEN TEMP_TABLE.the_start AND TEMP_TABLE.the_end
)

Answer 1

It partly depends on how your are storing your list of numbers. I’ll assume that they’re in another table for now, as even then you have many options.

SELECT
  *
FROM
  yourTable
WHERE
  EXISTS (SELECT * FROM yourList WHERE number BETWEEN yourTable.start_number AND yourTable.end_number)

Or…

SELECT
  *
FROM
  yourTable
INNER JOIN
  yourList
    ON yourList.number BETWEEN yourTable.start_number AND yourTable.end_number

Both of those are the simplest expressions, and work well for small data sets. If your list of numbers is relatively small, and your original data is relatively large, however, this may not scale well. This is because both of the above scan the whole of yourTable and then check each record against yourList.

What may be preferable is to scan the list, and then attempt to use indexes to check against the original data. This would require you to be able to reverse the BETWEEN statement to yourTable.start_number BETWEEN x and y

This can only be done if you know the maximum gap between start_number and end_number.

SELECT
  *
FROM
  yourList
INNER JOIN
  yourTable
    ON  yourTable.end_number   >= yourList.number
    AND yourTable.start_number <= yourList.number
    AND yourTable.start_number >= yourList.number - max_gap

To achieve this I would store the value of max_gap in another table, and update it as the values in yourTable change.