Finding a value in a list

[johncox]

I have a table with a char field (named field1) that contains a list of numbers in parens like (1,15,16,35).

I want to do a query that will select records based on user input

For example user inputs a value of 15 into variable $val so want to select the records where 15 is in the list.

I thought I could do something like:

SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE $val IN field1

It seems that you can't have a field in the table on the right of the IN for the list.

Any suggestions how I can seach a char field to see if it contains a value.

Thanks

JC

[devinemke]

your database design makes it very difficult to search effectively. you could do something like this:

SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE field1 LIKE '%$val%'

but when searching for $val = 1 you would get back results that have 11,12,13,14 etc...
if possible, you should really consider storing the each number separately in a separate table with a related field to join them to the first table. that's pretty basic realtional database design.