Joining tables with "similar" field values

Question

I have run into a situation where I want to join two tables on a field called U_LotusBox.    In my main table the the feild can contain values like 1 or 2 or 3 or 1,2,3,4.  That's 1 comma 2 comma 3 comma 4.  My field in the second tables contains only single digit values, like 1 ,2, 3 up to 5.
When the two fields are identical I am able to retrieve data.  But if my field in the main contains a value of 1,2,3 and my secondary table field value is 2 I get no data returned because the two fields are not identical.  
Is it possible to have a join that is "fuzzy" meaning that if the main table field values contains the value of the secondary field value, 2 in my example would it be possible to return data?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Ralph,
Here in high-level details is an SQL example of creating two tables (test1 and test2) with one column in each table (col_a and col_b, respectively) to show how a join on a substring of one column can be tied to a column of another table:
create table test1 (col_a char(5))
create table test2 (col_b char(1))
insert into test1 values ('1')
insert into test1 values ('1,2,3')
insert into test2 values ('1')
insert into test2 values ('2')
select col_a,test2_tbl1.col_b
from test1 inner join test2 as test2_tbl1 on col_a=test2_tbl1.col_b or
substring(col_a,1,1)=test2_tbl1.col_b or
substring(col_a,3,1)=test2_tbl1.col_b or
substring(col_a,5,1)=test2_tbl1.col_b
col_a     col_b
~~~~~~~|~~~~~
1         1
1,2,3     1
1,2,3     2
thanks,
John