I've created a full-text indexed column on a table.
I have a stored procedure to which I may pass the value of a variable "search this text". I want to search for "search", "this" and "text" within the full-text column. The number of words to search would be variable.
I could use something like
WHERE column LIKE '%search%' OR column LIST '%this%' OR column LIKE '%text%'
But that would require me to use dynamic SQL, which I'm trying to avoid.
How can I use my full-text search to find each of the words, presumably using CONTAINS, and without converting the whole stored procedure to dynamic SQL?
If you say you definitely have SQL Table Full Text Search Enabled, Then you can use query like below.
select * from table where contains(columnname,'"text1" or "text2" or "text3"' )
See link below for details
Full-Text Indexing Workbench
So I think I came up with a solution. I created the following scalar function:
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_Util_CONTAINS_SearchString]
(
#searchString NVARCHAR(MAX),
#delimiter NVARCHAR(1) = ' ',
#ANDOR NVARCHAR(3) = 'AND'
)
RETURNS NVARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
IF #searchString IS NULL OR LTRIM(RTRIM(#searchString)) = '' RETURN NULL
-- trim leading/trailing spaces
SET #searchString = LTRIM(RTRIM(#searchString))
-- remove double spaces (prevents empty search terms)
WHILE CHARINDEX(' ', #searchString) > 0
BEGIN
SET #searchString = REPLACE(#searchString,' ',' ')
END
-- reformat
SET #searchString = REPLACE(#searchString,' ','" ' + #ANDOR + ' "') -- replace spaces with " AND " (quote) AND (quote)
SET #searchString = ' "' + #searchString + '" ' -- surround string with quotes
RETURN #searchString
END
I can get my results:
DECLARE #ftName NVARCHAR (1024) = dbo.fn_Util_CONTAINS_SearchString('value1 value2',default,default)
SELECT * FROM Table WHERE CONTAINS(name,#ftName)
I would appreciate any comments/suggestions.
For your consideration.
I understand your Senior wants to avoid dynamic SQL, but it is my firm belief that Dynamic SQL is NOT evil.
In the example below, you can see that with a few parameters (or even defaults), and a 3 lines of code, you can:
1) Dynamically search any source
2) Return desired or all elements
3) Rank the Hit rate
The SQL
Declare #SearchFor varchar(max) ='Daily,Production,default' -- any comma delim string
Declare #SearchFrom varchar(150) ='OD' -- table or even a join statment
Declare #SearchExpr varchar(150) ='[OD-Title]+[OD-Class]' -- Any field or even expression
Declare #ReturnCols varchar(150) ='[OD-Nr],[OD-Title]' -- Any field(s) even with alias
Set #SearchFor = 'Sign(CharIndex('''+Replace(Replace(Replace(#SearchFor,' , ',','),', ',''),',',''','+#SearchExpr+'))+Sign(CharIndex(''')+''','+#SearchExpr+'))'
Declare #SQL varchar(Max) = 'Select * from (Select Distinct'+#ReturnCols+',Hits='+#SearchFor+' From '+#SearchFrom + ') A Where Hits>0 Order by Hits Desc'
Exec(#SQL)
Returns
OD-Nr OD-Title Hits
3 Daily Production Summary 2
6 Default Settings 1
I should add that my search string is comma delimited, but you can change to space.
Another note CharIndex can be substanitally faster that LIKE. Take a peek at
http://cc.davelozinski.com/sql/like-vs-substring-vs-leftright-vs-charindex
Related
Using SQL Server Azure or 2017 with Full Text Search, I need to return possible matches on names.
Here's the simple scenario: an administrator is entering contact information for a new employee, first name, last name, address, etc. I want to be able to search the Employee table for a possible match on the name(s) to see if this employee has already been entered in the database.
This might happen as an autosuggest type of feature, or simply display some similar results, like here in Stackoverflow, while the admin is entering the data.
I need to prevent duplicates!
If the admin enters "Bob", "Johnson", I want to be able to match on:
Bob Johnson
Rob Johnson
Robert Johnson
This will give the administrator the option of seeing if this person has already been entered into the database and choose one of those choices.
Is it possible to do this type of match on words like "Bob" and include "Robert" in the results? If so, what is necessary to accomplish this?
Try this.
You need to change the #per parameter value to your requirement. It indicates how many letters out of the length of the first name should match for the result to return. I just set it to 50% for testing purposes.
The dynamic SQL piece inside the loop adds all the CHARINDEX result per letter of the first name in question, to all existing first names.
Caveats:
Repeating letters will of course be misleading, like Bob will count 3 matches in Rob because there's 2 Bs in Bob.
I didn't consider 2 first names, like Bob Robert Johnson, etc so this will fail. You can improve on that however, but you get the idea.
The final SQL query gets the LetterMatch that is greater than or equal to the set value in #per.
DECLARE #name varchar(MAX) = 'Bobby Johnson' --sample name
DECLARE #first varchar(50) = SUBSTRING(#name, 0, CHARINDEX(' ', #name)) --get the first part of the name before space
DECLARE #last varchar(50) = SUBSTRING(#name, CHARINDEX(' ', #name) + 1, LEN(#name) - LEN(#first) - 1) --get the last part of the name after space
DECLARE #walker int = 1 --for looping
DECLARE #per float = LEN(#first) * 0.50 --declare percentage of how many letters out of the length of the first name should match. I just used 50% for testing
DECLARE #char char --for looping
DECLARE #sql varchar(MAX) --for dynamic SQL use
DECLARE #matcher varchar(MAX) = '' --for dynamic SQL use
WHILE #walker <> LEN(#first) + 1 BEGIN --loop through all the letters of the first name saved in #first variable
SET #char = SUBSTRING(#first, #walker, 1) --save the current letter in the iteration
SET #matcher = #matcher + IIF(#matcher = '', '', ' + ') + 'IIF(CHARINDEX(''' + #char + ''', FirstName) > 0, 1, 0)' --build the additional column to be added to the dynamic SQL
SET #walker = #walker + 1 --move the loop
END
SET #sql = 'SELECT * FROM (SELECT FirstName, LastName, ' + #matcher + ' AS LetterMatch
FROM TestName
WHERE LastName LIKE ' + '''%' + #last + '%''' + ') AS src
WHERE CAST(LetterMatch AS int) >= ROUND(' + CAST(#per AS varchar(50)) + ', 0)'
SELECT #sql
EXEC(#sql)
SELECT * FROM tbl_Names
WHERE Name LIKE '% user defined text %';
using a text in between % % will search those text on any position in the data.
I don't know if the method I have in mind (which the question relates to) is the best way to arrive at the desired result, so if anyone has a better idea I'm all ears. Here's what I'm trying to accomplish. Given a space-delimited set of search terms, I want to search a particular column, with consistent results regardless of the order of the terms. So e.g. "brown dog" and "dog brown" should return similar results. I have a table-valued function that takes a string and a delimiter and returns the split string as a single-column table.
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.Split
(
#char_array varchar(500), #delimiter char(1)
)
RETURNS
#parsed_array table
(
Parsed varchar(50)
)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #parsed varchar(50), #pos int
SET #char_array = LTRIM(RTRIM(#char_array))+ #delimiter
SET #pos = CHARINDEX(#delimiter, #char_array, 1)
IF REPLACE(#char_array, #delimiter, '') <> ''
BEGIN
WHILE #pos > 0
BEGIN
SET #parsed = LTRIM(RTRIM(LEFT(#char_array, #pos - 1)))
IF #parsed <> ''
BEGIN
INSERT INTO #parsed_array (Parsed)
VALUES (#parsed)
END
SET #char_array = RIGHT(#char_array, LEN(#char_array) - #pos)
SET #pos = CHARINDEX(#delimiter, #char_array, 1)
END
END
RETURN
END
GO
The column I want to search is a varchar(2000). Right now I'm searching it like so:
SELECT ID FROM Table WHERE Description LIKE '%' + #searchTerm + '%'
But that doesn't return consistent results given the scenario I described above where multiple terms are in a different order. Is it possible to somehow join the table from the function to the column and get the desired result? Note the results should contain all rows where the Description contains all search terms in any order.
To answer your question just from a SQL perspective, Yes, you can join the function to the table (I've gone via a temp table though) and use a HAVING clause to make sure all search terms are included, something like this.
SELECT
f.Parsed
INTO
#s
FROM
dbo.Split(#terms) f
DECLARE #c INT = (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM #s)
SELECT
t.ID
FROM
Table t
INNER JOIN #s s on t.Description LIKE '%' + s.Parsed + '%'
GROUP BY
t.ID
HAVING
COUNT(*) = #c
However, as comments to the question allude, this approach to searching leaves a lot of open questions. If you can take a look at SQL Server Full-Text Search - more effort to setup but much better results.
I have a stored procedure (join two tables and select where condition #GID), a want to convert table result from rows to columns. I use a dynamic pivot query.
My stored procedure:
After I try using pivot
I want result like this:
GROUP_MOD_ID ADD EDIT DELETE ETC...
---------------------------------------
G02 1 1 0 ....
Can you give me some advice about this ?
Thank you.
It's because you're using the batch delimiter to separate your queries. This means the scope of #GID is incorrect. Remove the semi colon after:
DECLARE #pivot_cols NVARCHAR(MAX);
You don't need to use batch delimiters in this case. The logical flow of the procedure means you can omit them without any problems.
EDIT:
Here's the edited code that I've devised:
ALTER PROCEDURE GET_COLUMN_VALUE #GID CHAR(3)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #PivotCols NVARCHAR(MAX)
SELECT #PivotCols = STUFF((SELECT DISTINCT ' , ' + QUOTENAME(B.FUNCTION_MOD_NAME)
FROM FUNCTION_GROUP AS A
JOIN FUNCTION_MOD B
ON A.FUNCTION_MOD_ID = B.FUNCTION_MOD_ID
WHERE A.GROUP_MOD_ID = #GID
FOR XML PATH (' '), TYPE).value(' . ', 'NVARCHAR(MAX) '), 1, 1, ' ')
DECLARE #PivotQuery NVARCHAR(MAX)
SET #PivotQuery = '
;WITH CTE AS (
SELECT A.GROUP_MOD_ID, B.FUNCTION_MOD_NAME, CAST(ALLOW AS BIT) AS ALLOW
FROM FUNCTION_GROUP AS A
JOIN FUNCTION_MOD AS B
ON A.FUNCTION_MOD_ID = B.FUNCTION_MOD_ID)
SELECT GROUP_MOD_ID, '+#PivotCols+'
FROM CTE
PIVOT (MAX(ALLOW) FOR FUNCTION_MOD_NAME IN ('+#PivotCols')) AS PIV'
PRINT #PivotQuery
EXEC (#PivotQuery)
END
EDIT2:
You should execute this stored procedure like so:
EXEC GET_COLUMN_VALUE #GID='G02'
We have issues with extended ascii codes getting in our database (128-155)
Is there anyway to search the entire database and display the results of any of these characters that may be in there and where they are located within the tables and columns.
Hope that makes sense.
I have the script to search entire DB, but having trouble with opening line.
DECLARE #SearchStr nvarchar(100)
SET #SearchStr != between char(32) and char(127)
I have this originally that works, but I need to extend the range I'm looking for.
SET #SearchStr = '|' + char(9) + '|' + char(10) + '|' + char(13)
Thanks
It's very unclear what your data looks like, but this might help you to get started:
declare #TestData table (String nvarchar(100))
insert into #TestData select N'abc'
insert into #TestData select N'def'
insert into #TestData select char(128)
insert into #TestData select char(155)
declare #SearchPattern nvarchar(max) = N'%['
declare #i int = 128
while #i <= 155
begin
set #SearchPattern += char(#i)
set #i += 1
end
set #SearchPattern += N']%'
select #SearchPattern
select String
from #TestData
where String like #SearchPattern
Of course you'll need to add some code to loop over every table and column that you want to query (see this question), and it's possible that this code will behave differently on different collations.
... where dodgyColumn is your column with questionable data ....
WHERE(patindex('%[' + char(127) + '-' + char(255) + ']%', dodgyColumn COLLATE Latin1_General_BIN2) > 0)
This works for us, to identify extended ASCII characters in our otherwise normal ASCII data (characters, numbers, punctuation, dollar and percent signs, etc.)
This is in SQL Server 2005. I have a varchar column and some rows contain trailing space, e.g. abc, def.
I tried removing the trailing space with this command:
update thetable
set thecolumn = rtrim(thecolumn)
But the trailing space remains. I tried to find them using:
select *
from thetable
where thecolumn <> rtrim(thecolumn)
But it returned nothing.
Are there some settings that I am not aware that influences trailing space check?
EDIT:
I know that there is trailing space from SSMS, when I copy paste the value from the grid to the editor, it has trailing space.
Check if the spaces that are not removed have the ASCII code 32.
Try this to replace "hard space" with "soft space":
update thetable set thecolumn = rtrim(replace(thecolumn, char(160), char(32)))
the query was missing equal sign
Are you certain that it is a space (ascii 32) character? You can get odd behavior with other "non-visible" characters. Try running
select ascII(right(theColumn, 1))
from theTable
and see what you get.
Use this Function:
Create Function [dbo].[FullTrim] (#strText varchar(max))
Returns varchar(max) as
Begin
Declare #Ch1 char,#ch2 char
Declare #i int,#LenStr int
Declare #Result varchar(max)
Set #i=1
Set #LenStr=len(#StrText)
Set #Result=''
While #i<=#LenStr
Begin
Set #ch1=SUBSTRING(#StrText,#i,1)
Set #ch2=SUBSTRING(#StrText,#i+1,1)
if ((#ch1=' ' and #ch2=' ') or (len(#Result)=0 and #ch1=' '))
Set #i+=1
Else
Begin
Set #Result+=#Ch1
Set #i+=1
End
End
Return #Result
End
In SQL, CHAR(n) columns are right-padded with spaces to their length.
Also string comparison operators (and most functions too) do not take the trailing spaces into account.
DECLARE #t TABLE (c CHAR(10), vc VARCHAR(10))
INSERT
INTO #t
VALUES ('a ', 'a ')
SELECT LEN(c), LEN(vc), с + vc
FROM #t
--
1 1 "a a"
Please run this query:
SELECT *
FROM thetable
WHERE thecolumn + '|' <> RTRIM(thecolumn) + '|'
and see if it finds something.
It sounds like either:
1) Whatever you are using to view the values is inserting the trailing space (or the appearance thereof- try a fixed-width font like Consolas).
2) The column is CHAR, not VARCHAR. In that case, the column will be padded with spaces up to the length of the column, e.g. inserting 'abc' into char(4) will always result in 'abc '
3) You are somehow not committing the updates, not updating the right column, or other form of user error. The update statement itself looks correct on the face of it.
I had the same issues with RTRIM() AND LTRIM() functions.
In my situation the problem was in LF and CR chars.
Solution
DECLARE #test NVARCHAR(100)
SET #test = 'Declaration status '
SET #test = REPLACE(REPLACE(#test, CHAR(10), ''), CHAR(13), '')