"shmeian" <shmeian@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A9F8FA76-9428-4D20-A00A-B75C2DB0DF8D@microsoft.com...
> Hi there,
>
> I have a simple problem but I can't solve it.
> I'm using the CONTAINS predicate to find names in a column called
> LAST_NAME.
> eg:
> SELECT bladebla FROM table bla
> WHERE CONTAINS( [LAST_NAME], @nameparam)
>
> But what I really want to do is something like this:
> WHERE CONTAINS( [LAST_NAME], @nameparam + '*')
> where * is a wildcard so if 'S' is passed into my proc it'll return Smith,
> Simpson, Slick etc.
>
> I can't find an example with the correct syntax for concatenating a
> wildcard
> onto a parameter. Simple you'd think but how do I do this?
>
> Many thanks,
> Ian.
>
>

"Kalen Delaney" wrote:

> Hi Ian
>
> The wildcard character for SQL Server strings is '%' and you can look for a
> string using a wildcard using the LIKE operator. Make sure your parameter is
> defined as varchar instead of fixed length char, and then it would look
> something like this:
>
> SELECT bladebla FROM table bla
> WHERE LAST_NAME LIKE @nameparam + '%'
>
> ---
> HTH
> Kalen Delaney, SQL Server MVP
> www.InsideSQLServer.com
> http://sqlblog.com
>
>
> "shmeian" <shmeian@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:A9F8FA76-9428-4D20-A00A-B75C2DB0DF8D@microsoft.com...
> > Hi there,
> >
> > I have a simple problem but I can't solve it.
> > I'm using the CONTAINS predicate to find names in a column called
> > LAST_NAME.
> > eg:
> > SELECT bladebla FROM table bla
> > WHERE CONTAINS( [LAST_NAME], @nameparam)
> >
> > But what I really want to do is something like this:
> > WHERE CONTAINS( [LAST_NAME], @nameparam + '*')
> > where * is a wildcard so if 'S' is passed into my proc it'll return Smith,
> > Simpson, Slick etc.
> >
> > I can't find an example with the correct syntax for concatenating a
> > wildcard
> > onto a parameter. Simple you'd think but how do I do this?
> >
> > Many thanks,
> > Ian.
> >
> >
>
>