Finding a Value In a Database Table Multivalued Column

Question

I have the following table

search_redirect
sr_id | sr_keyword | sr_redirect | sr_synonyms
------------------------------------------------------
1     | chair      | www.url.com | recliner,seat,stool
2     | couch      | www.url.com | sofa,divan
3     | dresser    | www.url.com | chest,drawers

When someone uses the search feature on my site, I want to be able to compare what they search to the list of synonyms. My attempt at a solution was this:

SELECT sr_redirect
FROM search_redirect
WHERE '#url.q#' IN (sr_redirect)

Unfortunately, while this is a completely legal move, it doesn't do what I thought it would do. My next attempt was to try and add single quotes to my values in the sr_synonyms, but that also did not yield successful results. Its difficult to word this issue so I was unable to find any help on this situation. Any advise I can get on this would be most appreciated. I am using ColdFusion 9 server-side scripting with SQL Server 2008.

Answer 1

To maintain a pure sql solution I would change your table into 2 tables.

The first could have :

search_redirect

sr_id | sr_keyword | sr_redirect

The second could have

search_keyword_to_synonym

sr_id | sr_synonym

Then only have 1 synonym per row in the second table. Your solution could then be:

SELECT sr_redirect FROM search_redirect
INNER JOIN search_keyword_to_synonym
ON search_redirect.sr_id=search_keyword_to_synonym.sr_id
WHERE search_redirect.sr_keyword=whatever_input_you_have.

Answer 2

First of all:

Never, ever put more than one information into one field, if you want to access them separately. Never

That said, this can easily be rectified: Create a table "Synonyms" like

synonym | sr_id
---------------
recliner| 1
seat    | 1
stool   | 1
sofa    | 2
divan   | 2

and be done with it.

Answer 3

you may use a similar syntax to this:

SELECT sr_redirect
FROM search_redirect
WHERE substr('#url.q#',sr_synonyms) > 0

i agree with others however - re-normalize