Search muliple values from a comma separated column in mysql

Question

I don't think it is worth to try for a solution with multiple OR conditions using FIND_IN_SET() where myColumn might contain data as 1,2,3 or 2,3,6.. in random FIND_IN_SET( '1', myColumn ) OR FIND_IN_SET( '3', myColumn ) OR FIND_IN_SET( '5', myColumn )

If this is not the right one, I might require a normalised solution to suit my query

Answer 1

Normalise you database if possible, but if you are desperate you could do something like this:-

SELECT DISTINCT Sometable.*
FROM SomeTable
INNER JOIN
(
    SELECT 1 AS i UNION SELECT 2 UNION SELECT 3
) Sub1
WHERE FIND_IN_SET(Sub1.i, Sometable.myColumn)

EDIT - using an array of keys without a loop

<?php

$some_keys = array(1,2,3);

$sql = "SELECT DISTINCT Sometable.*
        FROM SomeTable
        INNER JOIN
        (
            SELECT ".implode(" AS i UNION SELECT ", $some_keys)." AS i 
        ) Sub1
        WHERE FIND_IN_SET(Sub1.i, Sometable.myColumn)";

?>

Or if the values apply to the key of another table then you can use that:-

<?php

$some_keys = array(1,2,3);

$sql = "SELECT DISTINCT Sometable.*
        FROM SomeTable
        INNER JOIN SomeOtherTable 
        ON SomeOtherTable.id IN (".implode(",", $some_keys).")
        AND FIND_IN_SET(SomeOtherTable.id, Sometable.myColumn)";

?>