How do I include those empployee numbers that are not 8 digits?

Question

Hello all again.
My script currently doesn't find those employee numbers that are NOT 8 digits (some emp nos are 6, 7, 9) when doing comparisons. I've tried LPAD but it still doesn't find. Can anybody suggest a reason for this? I can post my whole script if you want but basically it doesn't match record in my temp table (SU_TEMPLOYEE_DETAILS):
  SELECT std_hire_date, std_last_name, std_sex, std_date_of_birth,
             std_email_address, std_emp_status,
             LPAD (std_employee_number, 8, '0') std_employee_number,
           --  std_employee_number,
             std_first_name, std_marital_status, std_middle_names,
             std_nationality, std_title, std_national_identifier,
             std_address_line1, std_address_line2, std_address_line3,
             std_address_line4, std_post_code, std_telephone_1, std_country,
                     std_location_id,         LPAD (std_supervisor_number, 8, '0') std_supervisor_number
      FROM   SU_TEMPLOYEE_DETAILS
       WHERE  std_employee_number = :p_emp_number..with the existing record in Production instance:
             SELECT DISTINCT per.person_id, per.business_group_id, per.last_name,
                      per.start_date, per.date_of_birth, per.email_address,
                     --LPAD (per.employee_number, 8, '0') employee_number,
                    per.employee_number,
                      per.first_name,
                      per.marital_status, per.middle_names, per.nationality,
                      per.national_identifier, per.sex, per.title,
                      padd.address_id, padd.primary_flag, padd.address_line1,
                      padd.address_line2, padd.address_line3,
                      padd.town_or_city, padd.postal_code,
                      padd.telephone_number_1, paas.assignment_id,
                      paas.assignment_number, paas.object_version_number,
                      paas.effective_start_date, paas.effective_end_date,
                      paas.job_id, paas.position_id, paas.location_id,
                      paas.organization_id, paas.assignment_type,
                      paas.supervisor_id, paas.default_code_comb_id,
                      paas.set_of_books_id, paas.period_of_service_id
                 FROM per_all_people_f per,
                      per_all_assignments_f paas,
                      per_addresses padd
                WHERE padd.person_id(+) = per.person_id
                  AND paas.person_id(+) = per.person_id
                  AND per.employee_number LIKE 'C%'-- :p_emp_number 
                      AND per.national_identifier = :p_ni_number
                      AND  REGEXP_LIKE(per.employee_number, '[[:alpha:]]');The Employee Number is 7 digits long (0000016). But I need the script to match its record where it may be 000016 or 00000016 in Production. Is this possible?
Many thanks for looking..
Steven

Answer 1

JackyWhite wrote:
My script currently doesn't find those employee numbers that are NOT 8 digits (some emp nos are 6, 7, 9) when doing comparisons. I've tried LPAD but it still doesn't find. Can anybody suggest a reason for this? I can post my whole script if you want but basically it doesn't match record in my temp table (SU_TEMPLOYEE_DETAILS):
The Employee Number is 7 digits long (0000016). But I need the script to match its record where it may be 000016 or 00000016 in Production. Is this possible? I would like to use the TRIM Function here rather than a simple LPAD (with hard coded length) especially if the length of the column std_employee number varies based on the leading zeroes. Something like:
SQL> WITH test_tab AS
  2       (SELECT '000016' col
  3          FROM DUAL
  4        UNION ALL
  5        SELECT '10000016'
  6          FROM DUAL
  7        UNION ALL
  8        SELECT '00000016'
  9          FROM DUAL)
10  -- "end of test data "
11  SELECT col, TRIM (LEADING '0' FROM col) changed_col_2
12    FROM test_tab
13  /
COL      CHANGED_
000016   16
10000016 10000016
00000016 16
3 rows selected.
SQL> variable param VARCHAR2(30);
SQL> exec :param := '00016';
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL>  WITH test_tab AS
  2        (SELECT '000016' col
  3           FROM DUAL
  4         UNION ALL
  5         SELECT '10000016'
  6           FROM DUAL
  7         UNION ALL
  8         SELECT '00000016'
  9           FROM DUAL)
10   -- "end of test data "
11   SELECT col, TRIM (LEADING '0' FROM col) changed_col_2
12     FROM test_tab
13    WHERE TRIM (LEADING '0' FROM col) = TRIM (LEADING '0' FROM :param)
14   /
COL      CHANGED_
000016   16
00000016 16
2 rows selected.
SQL> exec :param := '016';
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL>  WITH test_tab AS
  2        (SELECT '000016' col
  3           FROM DUAL
  4         UNION ALL
  5         SELECT '10000016'
  6           FROM DUAL
  7         UNION ALL
  8         SELECT '00000016'
  9           FROM DUAL)
10   -- "end of test data "
11   SELECT col, TRIM (LEADING '0' FROM col) changed_col_2
12     FROM test_tab
13    WHERE TRIM (LEADING '0' FROM col) = TRIM (LEADING '0' FROM :param)
14   /
COL      CHANGED_
000016   16
00000016 16
2 rows selected.
SQL> So your where clause will become something like:
WHERE TRIM (LEADING '0' FROM std_employee_number) =
                                          TRIM (LEADING '0' FROM :p_emp_number)Hope this helps.
Regards,
Jo