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One column contained in another

I have a table in which I need to compare two columns. Column A contains a string that should be part of Column B. For example, Column A is "Boxer" and Column B is "Dog Breed Boxer". I need to find the rows where the string in Column A is not embedded as part of the string in Column B.

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Seems pretty straightforward. Try this:

select A, B
  from yourtable
 where B not like '%' || A || '%'

Note: you may have to substitute your particular database's string concatenation operator for the standard SQL "double pipes" (||) operator.

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This was first published in December 2003

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