postgres && - Array Overlap operator with wildcard

Question

In postgres

select array['some', 'word'] && array ['some','xxx']   -- return true
select array['some', 'word'] && array ['','word']   -- return true

I'd like to know how I can use % wildcar in combination with && operator.

select array['some%', 'word'] && array ['','some']  -- I was thinking this will return true but it doesn't.

I want to check if a text array contains at least one element of another text array. The first text array can contains wildcard. What's the best way to do that?

Answer 1

You could try unnest to parse every element of both arrays and compare them using LIKE or ILIKE :

SELECT EXISTS(
  SELECT  
  FROM unnest(array['some%', 'word']) i (txt),
       unnest(array ['','some']) j (txt)
  WHERE j.txt LIKE i.txt) AS overlaps;

 overlaps 
----------
 t
(1 row)

If you want to apply the % to all array elements , just place it directly in the WHERE clause in the LIKE or ILIKE operator:

SELECT EXISTS(
  SELECT  
  FROM unnest(array['some', 'word']) i (txt),
       unnest(array ['','XXsomeXX']) j (txt)
  WHERE j.txt LIKE '%'||i.txt||'%') AS overlaps;

 overlaps 
----------
 t
(1 row)

Demo: db<>fiddle