Need help with PL/SQL functions

Question

Hi,
Is there a way to compare if a set of elements is present in another set using some function?
Example: Is it possible to find out if all words present in 'BANQUE SAFRA SA' is present in 'BANQUE JACOB SAFRA (SUISSE) SA' using some function in Oracle 9i?
Any suggestion would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Anushree

Answer 1

Boneist,
your solution would giv "false positives":
SQL> with my_tab as (select 'BANQUE JACOB SAFRA (SUISSE) SA' col1 from dual union all
  2                  select 'BANQUE SAFRA (SUISSE) SB' col1 from dual union all
  3                  select 'BANQUE SAFRA SA' col1 from dual union all
  4                  select 'BANQUE SAFRANE SA' col1 from dual)
  5  -- end of mimicking your data. USE SQL below!
  6  select * from my_tab
  7  where col1 like replace('BANQUE SAFRA SA', ' ', '%');
COL1
BANQUE JACOB SAFRA (SUISSE) SA
BANQUE SAFRA SA
BANQUE SAFRANE SA  Here is a PL/SQL funcion that does not expect the words in the specific order:
SQL> DECLARE
  2     FUNCTION strInStr(
  3        a   IN   VARCHAR2,
  4        b   IN   VARCHAR2)
  5        RETURN VARCHAR2
  6     IS
  7        i          PLS_INTEGER;
  8        startpos   PLS_INTEGER;
  9        endpos     PLS_INTEGER;
10        word       VARCHAR2(4000);
11     BEGIN
12        FOR i IN 1 .. LENGTH(a) - LENGTH(REPLACE(a, ' ')) + 1 LOOP
13           startpos := INSTR(' ' || a, ' ', 1, i);
14           endpos := INSTR(a || ' ', ' ', 1, i);
15           word := SUBSTR(a, startpos, endpos - startpos);
16
17           IF ' ' || b || ' ' NOT LIKE '% ' || word || ' %' THEN
18              RETURN 'N';
19           END IF;
20        END LOOP;
21
22        RETURN 'Y';
23     END;
24  BEGIN
25     DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(strInStr('BANQUE SAFRA SA', 'BANQUE JACOB SAFRA (SUISSE) SA'));
26     DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(strInStr('SAFRA BANQUE SA', 'BANQUE JACOB SAFRA (SUISSE) SA'));
27     DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(strInStr('BANQUE SAFRA FRANCE', 'BANQUE JACOB SAFRA (SUISSE) SA'));
28     DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(strInStr('QUE SAFRA SA', 'BANQUE JACOB SAFRA (SUISSE) SA'));
29  END;
30  /
Y
Y
N
N