How to specifya a sql query if the criteria is a cell array?

I've got a cell array like this sinkname = [washington newyork seattle]

and I'm connecting to a database and trying to extract the rows of data that have the exact same sinknames with the above cell array.

So I wrote the command like this: cur = exec(conn,'select city,people from map where city in sinkname');

I tried to add brackets/quotes/parenthesis around sinkname in the above command, but nothing worked.

What is the correct format of writing such query? Or is it impossible to set a where criteria like this?

My real cell array is very large so I can't type all the names in the 'where' criteria.

Thank you guys for help!

Answer 1

[Sean de Wolski]

If you're using R2013a or newer, use strjoin to turn the cell into a string:

sinkname = {'washington' 'newyork' 'seattle'};
str = ['Select person where city in ' strjoin(sinkname)]

[dleal]

I am getting an error doing something similar:

>> t = {'A','B','C'}

t =

  1×3 cell array

    {'A'}    {'B'}    {'C'}

>> T = strjoin(t)

ans =

    'A B C'

>> query1 = ['SELECT * FROM testDB WHERE Col1 IN ',T]

query1 =

    'SELECT * FROM testDB WHERE Col1 IN A B C'

    
JDBC Driver Error: [SQLITE_ERROR] SQL error or missing database (near "B": syntax error)

I dont get this error if I simply consult "B" individually:

query1 = ['SELECT * FROM testDB WHERE Col1 = ',T{2}]

Shouldn't I have quotes around every item in T? Shouldn't the be separated by commas and within brackets?