Query related data based on “like” statement

Question

I have two tables

Table1: ColumnA (varchar)

Table2: ColumnB (varchar)

I need to get all rows from T2 where ColumnB is "like" any of the rows from 'ColumnA%'. For example, rows in T1 might be:

• Summer09
• Fall09

while rows in T2 might be

• Spring09 Com101 Sec1
• Summer09 Stat400 Sec2
• Fall09 CS200 Sec3

In that scenario it would retun the Stat400 and CS200 rows. Is there a way to do this in a single SQL statement?

Answer 1

SELECT T2.*
FROM T1, T2
WHERE T1.ColumnB LIKE T2.ColumnA + '%'

or

SELECT T2.*
FROM T1
INNER JOIN T2 ON T1.ColumnB LIKE T2.ColumnA + '%'

Probably not going to run very fast.

Answer 2

this question points to a bad table design. my good friend Codd always said: do not combine multiple pieces of information into a single column!

t1 coulm should be split, so the semester and/or year should be their own column(s) with a FKs to the t2 table where the class info can be found using an index and no a slow LIKE!!