title: Trying to join Access tables with like statement with list in field
body: <p>I have a problem that I have been hunting for a solution to, but to avail.
  The basics are that I am trying to join 2 tables in Access by comparing a value in a field of Table 1 to a field in Table 2 that contains the number concatenated along with a few others in a list type format. (both fields are text type)  </p>
  
  <p>Example.<br>
  Table1.CWT value = 640242<br>
  Corresponding Table2.TAG_NO value I want to match to = 640242; 635894; 058426</p>
  
  <p>So that it links the two tables based on the common value (640242 in this case).<br>
  So far, I have tried the following:   </p>
  
  <p>LEFT JOIN [Table2] ON [Table1].CWT like '*' &amp; [Table2].TAG_NO &amp; '*'  </p>
  
  <p>and  </p>
  
  <p>LEFT JOIN [Table2] ON [Table1].CWT &amp; '*' like [Table2].TAG_NO </p>
  
  <p>and what seems like every variation in between, I have even tried using % instead of *.  But nothing works. In some cases, the value will be the second or third element in the string (635894 in above example), so I am looking for an option that will work in all cases.  This is akin to looking for the equivalent of the CONTAINS function, but that does not seem to exist either.<br>
  Can anyone help me out?<br>
  Thanks<br>
  Ted</p>