Decode with wildcard

Question

Hi,
I have a working query like this:
select id, rank() OVER(PARTITION BY id ORDER BY DECODE(code, 'ETPL',1,'FEPL',2,'ETAR',3,'FEAR',4,'ETJO',5,'ETLE',6,'ETDP',7, 8)) rn
from myTable
But now i need to get a wildcard in there somehow. I was hoping this would work
select id, rank() OVER(PARTITION BY id ORDER BY DECODE(code, 'ETPL%',1,'FEPL%',2,'ETAR%',3,'FEAR%',4,'ETJO%',5,'ETLE%',6,'ETDP%',7, 8)) rn
from myTable
It does however not. Any ideas on how to get around this?

Answer 1

Hi,
DavidNils wrote:
... But now i need to get a wildcard in there somehow. I was hoping this would work
select id, rank() OVER(PARTITION BY id ORDER BY DECODE(code, 'ETPL%',1,'FEPL%',2,'ETAR%',3,'FEAR%',4,'ETJO%',5,'ETLE%',6,'ETDP%',7, 8)) rn
from myTable'%' only has a special meaning when it's used on the right-hand side of a LIKE operator. It has no special meaning in DECODE.
It does however not. Any ideas on how to get around this?The answer to "How can I do this with DECODE ..." is "Don't use DECODE. Use CASE instead." DECODE is good for very simple comparisons. If you have to ask, then it's not very simple.
Actually, Etbin gave a good solution using DECODE, that relies on the fact that you're always interested in the first 4 characters of the code column. If you were not always interested in the first 4 characters, then you could do something like this:
... ORDER BY  CASE
            WHEN  code LIKE 'ETPL%'  THEN  1
            WHEN  code LIKE 'FOO%'   THEN  2
            WHEN  code LIKE '%BAR'   THEN  3
                            ELSE  4
           END