splitting data in a table column for search

Question

I was working with a simple mysql table in php when I came across this problem and I am wondering if there is a solution to this.

The table holds a username and his locations in a comma separated format.

 id|user|locations
------------------
 1 |abc | A, B, C
------------------
 2 |xyz | P, Q, R

I was wondering if there was any way to write a mysql query so that it would return me a user who has location as A. Basically if one of the values among the comma separated values match, the record should be returned.

I know it is a better way to store them as separate records, but I was just curious if such a retrieval is possible. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Ideally, you should consider normalizing the data so you are not storing the comma separated list.

But if you cannot alter the table structure, MySQL has a FIND_IN_SET() function that can be used to return the rows that match the value you want:

select id, user, locations
from yourtable
where find_in_set('A', locations)

See SQL Fiddle with Demo

Answer 2

We think

the following query may help you -

SELECT * FROM table WHERE column REGEXP '(^|,)A($|,)'

You can have a useful link in -

How to query comma delimited field of table to see if number is within the field