MySQL find_in_set with multiple search string

Question

I find that find_in_set only search by a single string :-

find_in_set('a', 'a,b,c,d') 

In the above example, 'a' is the only string used for search.

Is there any way to use find_in_set kind of functionality and search by multiple strings, like :-

find_in_set('a,b,c', 'a,b,c,d') 

In the above example, I want to search by three strings 'a,b,c'.

One way I see is using OR

find_in_set('a', 'a,b,c,d') OR find_in_set('b', 'a,b,c,d') OR find_in_set('b', 'a,b,c,d') 

Is there any other way than this?

Answer 1

there is no native function to do it, but you can achieve your aim using following trick

WHERE CONCAT(",", `setcolumn`, ",") REGEXP ",(val1|val2|val3)," 

Answer 2

The MySQL function find_in_set() can search only for one string in a set of strings.

The first argument is a string, so there is no way to make it parse your comma separated string into strings (you can't use commas in SET elements at all!). The second argument is a SET, which in turn is represented by a comma separated string hence your wish to find_in_set('a,b,c', 'a,b,c,d') which works fine, but it surely can't find a string 'a,b,c' in any SET by definition - it contains commas.