How to search for a string which can be in any of the cols.

sushanth bobby · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:36 pm

I have table which has nearly 250 columns. Nearly 150 columns are all VARCHAR. I want to search for a particular string with wildcard characters like '%sentine%' which can be in any one of the 150 columns.

Is there any way to search for a particular string in all the columns of a particular record based on their data type or something like that.
What i really want is, i want to search for a string or some characters in all the columns of a particular record and do the same for all the records.

OR

i have to use the old and tedious style
select * from tablename
where firstcol like '%senti%' or
secondcol like '%senti%' or
.
.
onehunderedandfiftycol like '%senti%'

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:53 pm

I'd dump the table and code something for the qsam.

searching 250 columns, means mentioning (typing the name of the column in sql) 250 columns.

sushanth bobby · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:13 pm

Is there any way of doing that...... What i asked.
QSAM = Queued Sequential Access Method that seem to be entirely not DB

enrico-sorichetti · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:32 pm

if You' d describe the process better somebody might come up with a solution

after the search what use are You going to make of the found rows?

unloading the table and using the dfsort find facility might be the fastest way to get what You ask for

sushanth bobby · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:47 pm

Example
-------------

ID name address city designation
7 sushanth india andhra analyst
-----------------------------------------------------------

iam searching for a string '%an%'

The query should have searched in name,address,city & designation and result are found in name(sushanth) ,city(andhra), designation(analyst).

if one match found itself is enough.

The result of the query display the id itself is enough.