Where condition in mysql with array value - mariadb

Question

I have a table with like this:
id
values
user_id
1
["8","7","6"]
5
Now I'm running a query with WHERE condition on values column:
SELECT * from table_name WHERE values = ["8","7","6"]
But MySQL returns this error:
Error Code : 1064
You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '["8","7","6"]'

Answer 1

If you want to compare for strict equality, you want to do the comparison as JSON objects. You can do this by using JSON_EXTRACT to parse the data as JSON instead of text:
SELECT * from table_name WHERE
JSON_EXTRACT(`values`, '$') = JSON_EXTRACT('["8","7","6"]', '$');
You should be able to use this for any type of JSON as long as you want strict equality. If you want to return all rows that match the given JSON object, use JSON_CONTAINS.
For example to find all values with the string "8" in it, you'd use the following:
SELECT * from table_name WHERE JSON_CONTAINS(`values`, '"8"');
Note that this matching is not as simple as you'd expect and matches any value in the document. If your data consists of JSON arrays, this should still be adequate.

Answer 2

The information about your column datatype, especially values are crucial. Since the column stores a mix of numbers and non-numbers characters, we can assume that it might be stored in VARCHAR() or TEXT datatype. But since the data format looks like a JSON array, it's also a possibility that the column datatype is JSON. Now both of these datatypes have a very different query structure.
First, let's address some issues:
Whenever the cell values include other characters than numerical, it will be considered as string. Hence, using plain .. WHERE values = ["8","7","6"] without wrapping it in quotes ('), you'll get that Error Code : 1064.
VALUES is a reserved word in MySQL so if you want to stick to it as your table column names, you always need to wrap it in backticks. If not, this will also return Error Code : 1064:
.. WHERE `values` = ..
Now let's try this:
If the column datatype for values is VARCHAR() or TEXT, you just have to simply wrap the search value in single quote like:
SELECT * from table_name WHERE `values` = '["8","7","6"]';
Refer this fiddle
updated for MariaDB
If the column datatype for values is JSON, it's something like this:
SELECT * from table_name where JSON_UNQUOTE(`values`)= '["8","7","6"]'
Refer this fiddle for JSON
The JSON method I've referred to this MariaDB documentation.
P/S: According to this documentation JSON is an alias for LONGTEXT introduced for compatibility reasons with MySQL's JSON data type. In other words, when creating a table with JSON datatype in MariaDB, it will be shown as LONGTEXT but with extra definition than just plain LONGTEXT datatype. See this fiddle for more detail.