SQL Server 2008: If Multiple Values Set In Other Mutliple Values Set

Question

In SQL, is there anyway to accomplish something like this? This is based off a report built in SQL Server Report Builder, where the user can specify multiple text values as a single report parameter. The query for the report grabs all of the values the user selected and stores them in a single variable. I need a way for the query to return only records that have associations to EVERY value the user specified.

-- Assume there's a table of Elements with thousands of entries.  
-- Now we declare a list of properties for those Elements to be associated with.

create table #masterTable (
    ElementId int, Text varchar(10)
)

insert into #masterTable (ElementId, Text) values (1, 'Red');
insert into #masterTable (ElementId, Text) values (1, 'Coarse');
insert into #masterTable (ElementId, Text) values (1, 'Dense');
insert into #masterTable (ElementId, Text) values (2, 'Red');
insert into #masterTable (ElementId, Text) values (2, 'Smooth');
insert into #masterTable (ElementId, Text) values (2, 'Hollow');

-- Element 1 is Red, Coarse, and Dense.  Element 2 is Red, Smooth, and Hollow.  
-- The real table is actually much much larger than this; this is just an example.

-- This is me trying to replicate how SQL Server Report Builder treats 
-- report parameters in its queries.  The user selects one, some, all, 
-- or no properties from a list. The written query treats the user's   
-- selections as a single variable called @Properties.
-- Example scenario 1: User only wants to see Elements that are BOTH Red and Dense.
select e.* 
from Elements e 
where (@Properties) --ideally a set containing only Red and Dense
in
(select Text from #masterTable where ElementId = e.Id) --ideally a set containing only Red, Coarse, and Dense
--Both Red and Dense are within Element 1's properties (Red, Coarse, Dense), so Element 1 gets returned, but not Element 2.

-- Example scenario 2: User only wants to see Elements that are BOTH Red and Hollow.  
select e.* from Elements e where
(@Properties) --ideally a set containing only Red and Hollow
in
(select Text from #masterTable where ElementId = e.Id)
--Both Red and Hollow are within Element 2's properties (Red, Smooth, Hollow), so Element 2 gets returned, but not Element 1.


--Example Scenario 3: User only picked the Red option.
select e.* from Elements e where
(@Properties) --ideally a set containing only Red
in
(select Text from #masterTable where ElementId = e.Id)
--Red is within both Element 1 and Element 2's properties, so both Element 1 and Element 2 get returned.

The above syntax doesn't actually work because SQL doesn't seem to allow multiple values on the left side of the "in" comparison. Error that returns:

Subquery returned more than 1 value. This is not permitted when the subquery follows =, !=, <, <= , >, >= or when the subquery is used as an expression.

Am I even on the right track here? Sorry if the example looks long-winded or confusing.

Here's the exact code I'm working with:

select p.*
from Products p
where
(
    (
        --user can search through gloves, bats, or both
        p.TypeId = 2 and 'Bat' in (@ProductTypes) 
        and 
        (
            (
                (@BatProperties) COLLATE DATABASE_DEFAULT in 
                (
                    select props.Name from PropertyTypes props
                    inner join ProductProperties pp on props.Id = pp.TypeId
                    where pp.ProductId = p.Id
                )
            --still want query to run when no properties are selected
            ) or not exists(select * from @BatProperties)
        )
    )
    or
    (
        p.TypeId = 1 and 'Glove' in (@ProductTypes) --user can search through gloves, bats, or both
        and
        (
            (
                (@GloveProperties) COLLATE DATABASE_DEFAULT in 
                (
                    select props.Name from PropertyTypes props
                    inner join ProductProperties pp on props.Id = pp.TypeId
                    where pp.ProductId = p.Id
                )
            --still want query to run when no properties are selected
            ) or not exists(select * from @GloveProperties)
        )
    )
)

Answer 1

Assuming that the element text field does not contain commas, you can first tokenize the parameter string and populate properties into a temp table, which can subsequently be joined with #masterTable to obtain elements with all the desired properties. A CTE could be used for tokenizing as below (code is not production-standard)

declare @parameter varchar(1000)
declare @num_of_params int
set @num_of_params = 0
set @parameter = 'Red, Dense, Coarse'
CREATE TABLE #tmp (id int, string varchar(1000))

INSERT INTO #tmp (id, string)
SELECT 1, @parameter 

;WITH test (id, lft, rght, idx)
AS 
(
    SELECT t.id
        ,LEFT(t.string, CHARINDEX(', ', t.string) - 1)
        ,SUBSTRING(t.string, CHARINDEX(', ', t.string) + 2, DATALENGTH(t.string))
        ,0
    FROM #tmp t
    UNION ALL
    SELECT c.id
        ,CASE WHEN CHARINDEX(', ', c.rght) = 0 THEN c.rght ELSE LEFT(c.rght, CHARINDEX(', ', c.rght) - 1) END
        ,CASE WHEN CHARINDEX(', ', c.rght) > 0 THEN SUBSTRING(c.rght, CHARINDEX(', ', c.rght) + 2, DATALENGTH(c.rght)) 
            ELSE '' END
        ,idx + 1
    FROM test c 
    WHERE DATALENGTH(c.rght) > 0
)

select * into #test from test
select @num_of_params = count(*) from #test
Drop table #tmp
select @num_of_params


select e.* from Elements e where elementID in (
select elementID
from #masterTable  m inner join #test t 
on m.text = t.lft
group by m.ElementID
having count(*) = @num_of_params
)

drop table #test