Preparestatement with IN-operator

Question

Hi,
I cannot make the IN-operator work with a PreparedStatement.
CREATE TABLE a_table(a_column VARCHAR2(10));
INSERT INTO a_table VALUES('foo');
INSERT INTO a_table VALUES('bar');
String sql = "SELECT * from a_table where a_column IN (?)";
PreparedStatement pst = connection.prepareStatement(sql);
pst.setString(1,"foo,bar");
ResultSet rs = pst.executeQuery();
while(rs.next())
  System.out.println(rs.getString(1));The above code will not return any rows if you pass in a bindvariable with a comma-sign, if you pass in just one value it works?
Does anybody know why?
I'm using Oracle9i as my rdms.
Regards
Magnus

Answer 1

You have to create list dynamically, because you can only set one parameter at a time, and each item in an "IN" list is its own parameter.
String[] values = { "foo", "bar" };
String sql = "SELECT * from a_table where a_column IN (";
int i = 0;
while (i++ < values.length) {
  sql += "?, ";
sql = sql.substring(0, sql.length() - 2) + ")";
PreparedStatement pst = connection.prepareStatement(sql);
i = 0;
while (i < values.length) {
    pst.setString(i, values[i++]);
}