Regular Expression: changing matching method from OR to AND - regex

Question

I have a regular expression like the following: (Running on Oracle's regexp_like(), despite the question isn't Oracle-specific)
abc|bcd|def|xyz
This basically matches a tags field on database to see if tags field contains abc OR bcd OR def OR xyz when user has input for the search query "abc bcd def xyz".
The tags field on the database holds keywords separated by spaces, e.g. "cdefg abcd xyz"
On Oracle, this would be something like:
select ... from ... where
regexp_like(tags, 'abc|bcd|def|xyz');
It works fine as it is, but I want to add an extra option for users to search for results that match all keywords. How should I change the regular expression so that it matches abc AND bcd AND def AND xyz ?
Note: Because I won't know what exact keywords the user will enter, I can't pre-structure the query in the PL/SQL like this:
select ... from ... where
tags like '%abc%' AND
tags like '%bcd%' AND
tags like '%def%' AND
tags like '%xyz%';

Answer 1

You can split the input pattern and check that all the parts of the pattern match:
SELECT t.*
FROM table_name t
CROSS APPLY(
WITH input (match) AS (
SELECT 'abc bcd def xyz' FROM DUAL
)
SELECT 1
FROM input
CONNECT BY LEVEL <= REGEXP_COUNT(match, '\S+')
HAVING COUNT(
REGEXP_SUBSTR(
t.tags,
REGEXP_SUBSTR(match, '\S+', 1, LEVEL)
)
) = REGEXP_COUNT(match, '\S+')
)
Or, if you have Java enabled in the database then you can create a Java function to match regular expressions:
CREATE AND COMPILE JAVA SOURCE NAMED RegexParser AS
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
public class RegexpMatch {
public static int match(
final String value,
final String regex
){
final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex);
return pattern.matcher(value).matches() ? 1 : 0;
}
}
/
Then wrap it in an SQL function:
CREATE FUNCTION regexp_java_match(value IN VARCHAR2, regex IN VARCHAR2) RETURN NUMBER
AS LANGUAGE JAVA NAME 'RegexpMatch.match( java.lang.String, java.lang.String ) return int';
/
Then use it in SQL:
SELECT *
FROM table_name
WHERE regexp_java_match(tags, '(?=.*abc)(?=.*bcd)(?=.*def)(?=.*xyz)') = 1;

Answer 2

Try this, the idea being counting that the number of matches is == to the number of patterns:
with data(val) AS (
select 'cdefg abcd xyz' from dual union all
select 'cba lmnop xyz' from dual
),
targets(s) as (
select regexp_substr('abc bcd def xyz', '[^ ]+', 1, LEVEL) from dual
connect by regexp_substr('abc bcd def xyz', '[^ ]+', 1, LEVEL) is not null
)
select val from data d
join targets t on
regexp_like(val,s)
group by val having(count(*) = (select count(*) from targets))
;
Result:
cdefg abcd xyz

Answer 3

I think dynamic SQL will be needed for this. The match all option will require individual matching with logic to ensure every individual match is found.
An easy way would be to build a join condition for each keyword. Concatenate the join statements in a string. Use dynamic SQL to execute the string as a query.
The example below uses the customer table from the sample schemas provided by Oracle.
DECLARE
-- match string should be just the values to match with spaces in between
p_match_string VARCHAR2(200) := 'abc bcd def xyz';
-- need logic to determine match one (OR) versus match all (AND)
p_match_type VARCHAR2(3) := 'OR';
l_sql_statement VARCHAR2(4000);
-- create type if bulk collect is needed
TYPE t_email_address_tab IS TABLE OF customers.EMAIL_ADDRESS%TYPE INDEX BY PLS_INTEGER;
l_email_address_tab t_email_address_tab;
BEGIN
WITH sql_clauses(row_idx,sql_text) AS
(SELECT 0 row_idx -- build select plus beginning of where clause
,'SELECT email_address '
|| 'FROM customers '
|| 'WHERE 1 = '
|| DECODE(p_match_type, 'AND', '1', '0') sql_text
FROM DUAL
UNION
SELECT LEVEL row_idx -- build joins for each keyword
,DECODE(p_match_type, 'AND', ' AND ', ' OR ')
|| 'email_address'
|| ' LIKE ''%'
|| REGEXP_SUBSTR( p_match_string,'[^ ]+',1,level)
|| '%''' sql_text
FROM DUAL
CONNECT BY LEVEL <= LENGTH(p_match_string) - LENGTH(REPLACE( p_match_string, ' ' )) + 1
)
-- put it all together by row_idx
SELECT LISTAGG(sql_text, '') WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY row_idx)
INTO l_sql_statement
FROM sql_clauses;
dbms_output.put_line(l_sql_statement);
-- can use execute immediate (or ref cursor) for dynamic sql
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE l_sql_statement
BULK COLLECT
INTO l_email_address_tab;
END;
Variable
Value
p_match_string
abc bcd def xyz
p_match_type
AND
l_sql_statement
SELECT email_address FROM customers WHERE 1 = 1 AND email_address LIKE '%abc%' AND email_address LIKE '%bcd%' AND email_address LIKE '%def%' AND email_address LIKE '%xyz%'
Variable
Value
p_match_string
abc bcd def xyz
p_match_type
OR
l_sql_statement
SELECT email_address FROM customers WHERE 1 = 0 OR email_address LIKE '%abc%' OR email_address LIKE '%bcd%' OR email_address LIKE '%def%' OR email_address LIKE '%xyz%'