SQL to Generate Record Combinations from input string

[p175]

Hi people,

Given I have a string record say "A+B+C+D+E", is it possible to parse
this string using SQL in DB2 and return all of the possible
combinations from the 5 elements to a min length of 3 by returning the
following records ?
"A+B+C+D+E"
"A+B+C+D"
"A+B+C"
"A+C+D+E"
"A+C+D"
"A+B+D+E"
"A+B+D"
"A+B+C+E"
"A+B+E"
"B+C+D+E"
"B+C+D"
"C+D+E"

I need somehow to do this on a daily basis and insert the returned
records into a result table I can query later. Frankly I have no clue
how I supposed to do this, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm using win2k server, DB2 8.2.2 ESE.

Many thanks,

Tim

[p175]

Doh !

Left out :
"B+D+E"
"B+C+E"
"A+C+E"
"A+D+E"

[Tonkuma]

This may be too complicated. More simplified way will be there.
Anyway, this worked.

------------------------- Commands Entered -------------------------
WITH
Given (str) AS (
VALUES 'A+B+C+D+E'
)
,
-- REMOVE 1st STRING
Separator_pos AS (
SELECT n
, INT(ROWNUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY n)) s
FROM (SELECT n
FROM Given g
, TABLE
(SELECT 10*a + b n
FROM (VALUES 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) p(a)
, (VALUES 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) q(b)
WHERE 10*a + b BETWEEN 1 AND LENGTH(str)
) r
WHERE SUBSTR(str,n,1) = '+'
UNION ALL
SELECT LENGTH(str)+1 AS n FROM Given
) s
)
,
Remove1 AS (
SELECT SUBSTR(INSERT('+'||str,n1+1,n2-n1,''),2,20) str
, s2 AS sn
FROM Given
, (SELECT n, s
FROM Separator_pos
UNION ALL
(VALUES (0, 0))
) AS p(n1,s1)
, Separator_pos AS q(n2,s2)
WHERE s1 + 1 = s2
)
,
-- REMOVE 2nd STRING
Separator_pos2 AS (
SELECT sn
, n
, INT(ROWNUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY sn ORDER BY n)) s
FROM (SELECT sn, n
FROM Remove1 g
, TABLE
(SELECT 10*a + b n
FROM (VALUES 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) p(a)
, (VALUES 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) q(b)
WHERE 10*a + b BETWEEN 1 AND LENGTH(str)
) r
WHERE SUBSTR(str,n,1) = '+'
UNION ALL
SELECT sn, LENGTH(str)+1 AS n FROM Remove1
) s
)
,
Remove2 AS (
SELECT SUBSTR(INSERT('+'||str,n1+1,n2-n1,''),2,20) str
FROM Remove1
, (SELECT sn, n, s
FROM Separator_pos2
UNION ALL
SELECT sn, 0, 0
FROM Separator_pos2
) AS p(sn1,n1,s1)
, Separator_pos2 AS q(sn2,n2,s2)
WHERE sn1 = sn
AND sn2 = sn
AND s1 + 1 = s2
)
SELECT str
FROM (
SELECT str
FROM Given
UNION
SELECT str
FROM Remove1
UNION
SELECT str
FROM Remove2
) Q(str)
ORDER BY RTRIM(str) || chr(255)
;
--------------------------------------------------------------------

STR
--------------------
A+B+C+D+E
A+B+C+D
A+B+C+E
A+B+C
A+B+D+E
A+B+D
A+B+E
A+C+D+E
A+C+D
A+C+E
A+D+E
B+C+D+E
B+C+D
B+C+E
B+D+E
C+D+E

16 record(s) selected.

[p175]

Thats amazing, thank you so much Tonkuma, very much appreciated.

[--CELKO--]

CREATE TABLE Foobar (sillystring VARCHAR(12) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY);
INSERT INTO Foobar (sillystring) VALUES ('A+B+C+D+E');

CREATE TABLE Elements(item VARCHAR(3) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY);

INSERT INTO Elements VALUES ('A+');
INSERT INTO Elements VALUES ('B+');
INSERT INTO Elements VALUES ('C+');
INSERT INTO Elements VALUES ('D+');
INSERT INTO Elements VALUES ('+E');

Now a pure functional solution:

SELECT sillystring -- fives
FROM Foobar
UNION -- fours
SELECT REPLACE (REPLACE (F1.sillystring, E.item, ''), '++', '+')
FROM Foobar AS F1
CROSS JOIN
Elements AS E
UNION
SELECT REPLACE
(REPLACE
(REPLACE (F1.sillystring, E1.item, ''),
E2.item, ''),
'++', '+')
FROM Foobar AS F1
CROSS JOIN
Elements AS E1
CROSS JOIN
Elements AS E2;

[Tonkuma]

A little shorter example.
This use one less common table expression than previous version.
And this remove two strinngs at once directly from given string. Then
no duplicate rows will not be produced. So, UNION ALL are used in
subquery of last query.

WITH
Given (str) AS (
VALUES 'A+B+C+D+E'
)
-- Find separator positions
,
Separator_pos AS (
SELECT n
, INT(ROWNUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY n)) s
FROM (SELECT n
FROM Given g
, TABLE
(SELECT 10*a + b n
FROM (VALUES 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) p(a)
, (VALUES 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) q(b)
WHERE 10*a + b BETWEEN 1 AND LENGTH(str)
) r
WHERE SUBSTR(str,n,1) = '+'
UNION ALL
SELECT LENGTH(str)+1 AS n FROM Given
) s
)
-- REMOVE one STRING
,
Remove1 AS (
SELECT SUBSTR(INSERT('+'||str,n1+1,n2-n1,''),2,20) str
FROM Given
, (SELECT n, s
FROM Separator_pos
UNION ALL
(VALUES (0, 0))
) AS p1(n1,s1)
, Separator_pos AS p2(n2,s2)
WHERE s1 + 1 = s2
)
-- REMOVE two STRINGs
,
Remove2 AS (
SELECT SUBSTR(str,1,n1-1)
|| SUBSTR(str,n2+1-SIGN(s1),n3-n2-(1-SIGN(s1))*SIGN(s3-1))
|| SUBSTR(str||' ',n4+1-SIGN(s3-1),LENGTH(str)-n4+SIGN(s3-1)) AS
str
FROM Given
, (SELECT n, s
FROM Separator_pos
UNION ALL
(VALUES (1, 0))
) AS p1(n1,s1)
, Separator_pos AS p2(n2,s2)
, Separator_pos AS p3(n3,s3)
, Separator_pos AS p4(n4,s4)
WHERE s1 + 1 = s2
AND s2 <= s3
AND s3 + 1 = s4
)
SELECT str
FROM (
SELECT str
FROM Given
UNION ALL
SELECT str
FROM Remove1
UNION ALL
SELECT str
FROM Remove2
) Q(str)
ORDER BY RTRIM(str) || chr(255)
;
--------------------------------------------------------------------

STR
----------------------------
A+B+C+D+E
A+B+C+D
A+B+C+E
A+B+C
A+B+D+E
A+B+D
A+B+E
A+C+D+E
A+C+D
A+C+E
A+D+E
B+C+D+E
B+C+D
B+C+E
B+D+E
C+D+E

16 record(s) selected.