Finding data which, when tweaked, matches.

SQL provides a LIKE function for simple pattern matching. Also, both mySql and PostgreSql provide REGEX functions though they may not be identical in use.

Rick Lloyd wrote:

SQL provides a LIKE function for simple pattern matching. Also, both mySql and PostgreSql provide REGEX functions though they may not be identical in use.

So are you suggesting that I do something like this:

string = params[:social] # magic on string until string = "%0%1%2%3%4%5%6%7%8%" ?

Not quite, in PostgreSql you could use

SELECT * FROM tablename WHERE fieldname SIMILAR TO '[-a-z]*0[-a-z]*1[- a-z]*2[-a-z]*3[-a-z]*4[-a-z]*5[-a-z]*6[-a-z]*7[-a-z]*8[-a-z]*'

to push all the filtering into the query.