RE: SQL wildcarding

James,

You could write a function that strips out ()- and blanks from the value (maybe other values like commas or periods too). Run the column through that function and compare the function output against 7145551212.

This will cause performance problems because SQL can no longer use an index over that column. You could run the phone number column through the function ahead of time and store the result in a table extension that has the table primary key and the converted column values. Then you could add an index on the converted column values and search on the table extension joined back to the primary table.

Paul Morgan

Principal Programmer Analyst
IT Supply Chain/Replenishment

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of James Lampert
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 1:15 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: SQL wildcarding

I have a problem with phone number searching in a database.

The problem is that the phone numbers are not stored consistently.

Most U.S. phone numbers are stored with the punctuation squeezed out.
But there are a few that are stored including the punctuation.

Most non-U.S. phone numbers are stored "as-entered." But again, there
may be exceptions.

And we don't know which of these possibilities we're looking for until
after we find it.

Is there an SQL construct, that works back to V4R4, in which, if we're
given a raw value of, say, (714) 555-1212, we will find both "(714)
555-1212" and "7145551212" in the file?

--
JHHL