Find "regional" relationships in SQL data using a query, or SSIS - sql-server

Question

Edit for clarification: I am compiling data weekly, based on Zip_Code, but some Zip_Codes are redundant. I know I should be able to compile a small amount of data, and derive the redundant zip_codes if I can establish relationships.
I want to define a zip code's region by the unique set of items and values that appear in that zip code, in order to create a "Region Table"
I am looking to find relationships by zip code with certain data. Ultimately, I have tables which include similar values for many zip codes.
I have data similar to:
ItemCode |Value | Zip_Code
-----------|-------|-------
1 |10 | 1
2 |15 | 1
3 |5 | 1
1 |10 | 2
2 |15 | 2
3 |5 | 2
1 |10 | 3
2 |10 | 3
3 |15 | 3
Or to simplify the idea, I could even concantenate ItemCode + Value into unique values:
ItemCode+
Value | Zip_Code
A | 1
B | 1
C | 1
A | 2
B | 2
C | 2
A | 3
D | 3
E | 3
As you can see, Zip_Code 1 and 2 have the same distinct ItemCode and Value. Zip_Code 3 however, has different values for certain ItemCodes.
I need to create a table that establishes a relationship between Zip_Codes that contain the same data.
The final table will look something like:
Zip_Code | Region
1 | 1
2 | 1
3 | 2
4 | 2
5 | 1
6 | 3
...etc
This will allow me to collect data only once for each unique Region, and derive the zip_code appropriately.
Things I'm doing now:
I am currently using a query similar to a join, and compares against Zip_Code using something along the lines of:
SELECT a.ItemCode
,a.value
,a.zip_code
,b.ItemCode
,b.value
,b.zip_code
FROM mytable as a, mytable as b -- select from table twice, similar to a join
WHERE a.zip_code = 1 -- left table will have all ItemCode and Value from zip 1
AND b.zip_code = 2 -- right table will have all ItemCode and Value from zip 2
AND a.ItemCode = b.ItemCode -- matches rows on ItemCode
AND a.Value != b.Value
ORDER BY ItemCode
This returns nothing if the two zip codes have exactly the same ItemNum, and Value, and returns a slew of differences between the two zip codes if there are differences.
This needs to move from a manual process to an automated process however, as I am now working with more than 100 zip_codes.
I do not have much programming experience in specific languages, so tools in SSIS are somewhat limited to me. I have some experience using the Fuzzy tools, and feel like there might be something in Fuzzy Grouping that might shine a light on apparent regions, but can't figure out how to set it up.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I have access to SQLServ and its related tools, and Visual Studio. I am trying to avoid writing a program to automate this, as my c# skills are relatively nooby, but will figure it out if necessary.
Sorry for being so verbose: This is my first Question, and the page I agreed to in order to ask a question suggested to explain in detail, and talk about what I've tried...
Thanks in advance for any help I might receive.

Answer 1

Give this a shot (I used the simplified example, but this can easily be expanded). I think the real interesting part of this code is the recursive CTE...
;with matches as (
--Find all pairs of zip_codes that have matching values.
select d1.ZipCode zc1, d2.ZipCode zc2
from data d1
join data d2 on d1.Val=d2.Val
group by d1.ZipCode, d2.ZipCode
having count(*) = (select count(distinct Val) from data where zipcode = d1.Zipcode)
), cte as (
--Trace each zip_code to it's "smallest" matching zip_code id.
select zc1 tempRegionID, zc2 ZipCode
from matches
where zc1<=zc2
UNION ALL
select c.tempRegionID, m.zc2
from cte c
join matches m on c.ZipCode=m.zc1
and c.ZipCode!=m.zc2
where m.zc1<=m.zc2
)
--For each zip_code, use it's smallest matching zip_code as it's region.
select zipCode, min(tempRegionID) as regionID
from cte
group by ZipCode

Answer 2

Demonstrating that there's a use for everything, though normally it makes me cringe: concatenate the values for each zip code into a single field. Store ZipCode and ConcatenatedValues in a lookup table (PK on the one, UQ on the other). Now you can assess which zip codes are in the same region by grouping on ConcatenatedValues.
Here's a simple function to concatenate text data:
CREATE TYPE dbo.List AS TABLE
(
Item VARCHAR(1000)
)
GO
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.Implode (#List dbo.List READONLY, #Separator VARCHAR(10) = ',') RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS BEGIN
DECLARE #Concat VARCHAR(MAX)
SELECT #Concat = CASE WHEN Item IS NULL THEN #Concat ELSE COALESCE(#Concat + #Separator, '') + Item END FROM #List
RETURN #Concat
END
GO
DECLARE #List AS dbo.List
INSERT INTO #List (Item) VALUES ('A'), ('B'), ('C'), ('D')
SELECT dbo.Implode(#List, ',')