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Set Full Text Search to treat Numbers at Text Sql Server 2008 R2

Hello

I am testing setting up a Full Text Search and I am having issues when trying to search for a Numbers.

If I search for contains(ColumnA,'"5"')
It will only return rows that have "5"
It won't return rows that contain "5mm" or "5Ltr"

Can I make it treat all Numbers as Text?

Also if I search for contains(ColumnA,'"2.5m"')
It will return results that contain "2.5m" AND results that contain "25m" (It searches for the decimal point then drops it and joins the "2" and the "5m" together)

Thanks

chaau

To make the CONTAINS to search from the beginning of the string you need to use *, like this:

 contains(ColumnA,'"5*"')

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Please note that punctuation is ignored in full text search (when you search for 2.5m the decimal point is a full stop punctuation as far as SQL Server is concerned ). here is the quote from MSDN:

Punctuation is ignored. Therefore, CONTAINS(testing, "computer failure") matches a row with the value, "Where is my computer? Failure to find it would be expensive." For more information on word-breaker behavior, see Configure and Manage Word Breakers and Stemmers for Search.

.
If you wish to do the exact search use LIKE:

ColumnA LIKE '%2.5m%'

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Ron Kidd

ASKER

Hello Chaau

I Have been using '"5*'" and '"2.5m*"' - Just missed out putting it on the ticket!! Sorry.

I'm trying to use Full text Search as it is about 4 Times faster than Like on this project

There must be some way to make it search the "."

chaau

All numbers are in the stop list. You can remove the numbers from there. However, it is very difficult to get full text to search "like Google". The punctuation is the trickiest part. I guess you need to either use LIKE or store the key words in an index table

Ron Kidd

ASKER

I have removed the Stop Words list from the Index.

My other Option is to Replace all full stops with something else Like |,^,~,<,>,{,},[,]

Do you know if any of these characters get dropped like the full stop?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

chaau

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