REGEXP_LIKE for more of a range of numbers.

Question

Hi to all.
It's a pleasure to receive your help.
I am using Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0
I want from a string of pairs of numbers (where each pair is a range) to know if my number parameter is between a of the pairs.
Something like the following.
SQL:
declare
  i     pls_integer := 0;
  s     varchar2(100) := '^([74010000-74019999]|[85990000-85990999])';
  test1 varchar2(8) := '64010000';
  test2 varchar2(8) := '74010000';
begin
  begin
    select 1 into i from dual where regexp_like(test1, s);
    dbms_output.put_line(i);
  exception
    when no_data_found then
      dbms_output.put_line(0);
  end;
  begin
    select 1 into i from dual where regexp_like(test2, s);
    dbms_output.put_line(i);
  exception
    when no_data_found then
      dbms_output.put_line(0);
  end;
end;
With the expected result below.
Output (It did not happen):
0
1
Actual Output:
1
1
Suggestions?
I'm looking for the correct literal.
Thank in advance,
Filippe

Answer 1

Hi,
Don't try to compare numbers to strings; compare numbers  to other numbers.
If you must get the input as a string (a delimited list of numbers) then use REGEXP_SUBSTR to find numeric sub-strings, and convert them to numbers.
Here's how you could do it in pure SQL:
CREATE TABLE  test
(   n  NUMBER
INSERT INTO test (n) VALUES (64010000);
INSERT INTO test (n) VALUES (74010000);
VARIABLE  str  VARCHAR2 (200)
EXEC     :str := '(74010000-74019999)|(85990000-85990999)';
WITH  got_nums AS
    SELECT TO_NUMBER ( RTRIM ( REGEXP_SUBSTR ( :str
                                             , '\d+-'
                                             , 1
                                             , LEVEL
                     )  AS low_num
     ,    -TO_NUMBER ( REGEXP_SUBSTR ( :str
                                     , '-\d+'
                                     , 1
                                     , LEVEL
                     )  AS high_num
     FROM    dual
     CONNECT BY LEVEL <= 1 + LENGTH (:str)
                           - LENGTH (REPLACE (:str, '|'))
SELECT  n
,       CASE
            WHEN  EXISTS (
                            SELECT  1
                            FROM    got_nums
                            WHERE   test.n  BETWEEN  low_num
                                            AND      high_num
            THEN  1
            ELSE  0
        END  AS found
FROM    test
In PL/SQL, it's simpler.  You don't have use CONNECT BY to simulate a loop.