[Aaronb]

Hi all,

Hopefully I can explain my question well enough. I have a user input form with 4 text input boxes
the data from them goes into a table with 4 columns but it needs to also search the previous records to see if any of the text input boxes data matches any of the records in the columns and return the row if 3 of them match for example if -

input text1 = column1 OR input1 = column2 OR input1 = column3 OR input1 = column4
AND
input text2 = column1 OR input2 = column2 OR input2 = column3 OR input2 = column4
AND
input text3 = column1 OR input3 = column2 OR input3 = column3 OR input3 = column4
B]AND[/B]
input text4 = column1 OR input4 = column2 OR input4 = column3 OR input4 = column4

but it doesn't need all 4 to match only say 3 of them. But the 3 could be any combination like 1st, 2nd, and 4th or it could be the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th or 1st, 3rd, and 4th etc..
Hope this makes sense and someone can help. Please and thank you in advance.

[phplabs]

just to make sure i got your question correctly, do you want to select a row where any 3 of the inputs match any 3 out of 4 columns in any order?

[phplabs]

perhaps this could work:

...where
column1 in (input1, input2, input3, input4) and column2 in (input1, input2, input3, input4) and column3 in (input1, input2, input3, input4)
or
column1 in (input1, input2, input3, input4) and column2 in (input1, input2, input3, input4) and column4 in (input1, input2, input3, input4)
or
column1 in (input1, input2, input3, input4) and column3 in (input1, input2, input3, input4) and column4 in (input1, input2, input3, input4)
or
column2 in (input1, input2, input3, input4) and column3 in (input1, input2, input3, input4) and column4 in (input1, input2, input3, input4);

things to consider:
* this query might return unwanted results if 2 or more column values are equal (e.g. column1 = column2, etc)
* this query might have poor execution speed

[Aaronb]

yes you have the question right and I will certainly try your idea and post the outcome and I thank you sir for the reply. Ill try it right now.

[Aaronb]

Its seems to work great!! Thank you again for your help phplabs, I do appreciate it!!

[phplabs]

you're welcome, i'm glad it works