Question

SQL Server Escape Character in SELECT Query

Asked by: tealnet

I am running SQL Server 2005.  I'm trying to do a query that selects records where a text field (nvarchar) contains an ampersand (&) character.  Here is the query:

SELECT id WHERE Contains(owners, '"& Co"')

Basically I need to find records where the 'owners' field contains "& Co".  I have tried everything I can think of to escape the ampersand but nothing works.  It either ignores the & and gives me everything containing "Co" or I get no results... or a syntax error.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2008-12-14 at 15:37:37ID23984043
Tags

SQL Server

Topics

SQL Server 2005

,

MS SQL Server

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
16

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Escape...
    I have a JS line if (pathval.charAt(i)=='\') ... to search a string for the character \ unfortunately JS thinks I'm trying to escape the close quote. What do I do??
  2. escape characters
    I am using oracle 8.1.6 on win NT4. I want to know escape characters for all keyboard characters. What I mean is insert into emp(empno,ename) values(1111,'br'o'neal'); will fail. But insert into emp(empno,ename) values(1111,'br''o''neal'); will succeed. I know select ascii(...
  3. Escape Characters in XML
    I am trying to figure out how the Xerces parser decides to replace text with escape characters. Here's my test code: try { // Create a document... DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance(); DocumentBuilder db = dbf.newDocumentBuil...
  4. How to ampersand-escape an XML string
    Hi, Is there a standard java API method for ampersand-escaping a string (for using with XML)? I do not want to create an XML document, but just to escape a string (creating a document with a Writer and all that would be over-kill). If not - can anyone point me to some free...
  5. Escape
    How can I escape out of a for - next Loop?

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: GreenGhostPosted on 2008-12-14 at 15:54:00ID: 23170473

That doesn't look like a query that would run at all. You need to specify a table, and there is no contains function...

You don't have to do anything to escape an ampersand, there is nothing special with that character.

Use the LIKE operator:

select id from SomeTable where owners like '%& Co%'

 

by: tealnetPosted on 2008-12-14 at 16:23:25ID: 23170565

Sorry, my query is:

SELECT id FROM records WHERE Contains(owners, '"& Co"')

I'm using full-text indexing which makes queries run lightning fast.  There's about 10 million records in the database so this is really the only efficient way to do it.

I tried your query and it works... but it took a little over 2 minutes to find about 9000 records.  When I run my query, it takes 3 seconds to grab 55000 records... but it's getting everything with just "Co" instead of "& Co".

 

by: acperkinsPosted on 2008-12-14 at 16:40:22ID: 23170614

Unfortunately that is a problem with Full-Text Search.  There is no feasible workaround other than change all "&" to "and"

 

by: appariPosted on 2008-12-14 at 17:03:54ID: 23170682

i am not sure if it works or not
try

SELECT id FROM records WHERE Contains(owners, '"&" NEAR " Co"')

 

by: tealnetPosted on 2008-12-14 at 17:09:39ID: 23170703

I have also discovered this after doing some more searching... I guess I'm going to have to provide a second search box if they want to find anything with any non-text characters.

 

by: acperkinsPosted on 2008-12-14 at 17:42:36ID: 23170803

Apparently it has to do with the fact that as of SQL Server 2005 & was made an alias of "and" (in much the same way || for "or")

 

by: GreenGhostPosted on 2008-12-14 at 17:47:07ID: 23170822

I see.

The problem with full text search in this case is that it can't be used for an exact match. I don't think that the ampersand is even included in the index.

Replacing "&" with "and" doesn't help either, as "and" is a noise word that is not included in the index.

 

by: GreenGhostPosted on 2008-12-14 at 17:51:19ID: 23170837

> Apparently it has to do with the fact that as of SQL Server 2005 & was made an alias of "and"

I don't think so, as the string is a simple term (enclosed in quotation marks). The and operator is used between simple terms, like in Contains(owner, '"chip" & "dale"').

 

by: acperkinsPosted on 2008-12-14 at 17:54:48ID: 23170854

>>The problem with full text search in this case is that it can't be used for an exact match. <<
It is called a phrase search.

>>I don't think that the ampersand is even included in the index.<<
Correct, that is the problem.

>>Replacing "&" with "and" doesn't help either, as "and" is a noise word that is not included in the index.<<
You can work around that, by removing it from the noise file.  The other option is to replace the & with some other symbol.

 

by: acperkinsPosted on 2008-12-14 at 17:58:15ID: 23170860

>>I don't think so, as the string is a simple term<<
I agree that is not the case here.  I am talking about when there is a boolean search.  My point was that this changed from SQL Server 2000 to 2005.  The problem with & did not exist with 2000.

 

by: GreenGhostPosted on 2008-12-14 at 18:02:38ID: 23170869

>>>>The problem with full text search in this case is that it can't be used for an exact match.
>>It is called a phrase search.

A phrase search is still not an exact match. It's not case sensetive, and punctuation and noise words are ignored.

>>Replacing "&" with "and" doesn't help either, as "and" is a noise word that is not included in the index.<<
You can work around that, by removing it from the noise file.  The other option is to replace the & with some other symbol.

Most symbols would be removed, so you would have to replace it with a word. That could give some surprising results...

 

by: acperkinsPosted on 2008-12-14 at 18:16:22ID: 23170912

Well it seems I was wrong the reason & is not indexed has to do with the fact that it is treated as a word breaker (it has nothing to do with the alias for "and" added for the C junkies).  There are other symbols that are treated the same way most noticeably $, #, -

The reason @ worked for me in the past on SQL Server 2000 apparently had more to do with the O/S (Windows 2000) than SQL Server.  Apparently the dll was changed with Windows 2003.

But the bottom line is that there are no easy solutions, other than the solution I plagiarized from Hillary Cotter see here:
http://www.tech-archive.net/Archive/SQL-Server/microsoft.public.sqlserver.fulltext/2005-04/msg00042.html

 

by: acperkinsPosted on 2008-12-14 at 18:17:45ID: 23170915

And of course this:
The reason @ worked for me in the past ...
Should have read:
The reason & worked for me in the past ...

 

by: ScottPletcherPosted on 2008-12-15 at 15:16:40ID: 23179036

Check the noise file and see if "&" is specified in it.  If so, remove it, and rebuild the index.

 

by: GreenGhostPosted on 2008-12-15 at 18:13:35ID: 23180363

Worth a check, but I think that the ampersand counts as punctuation rather than a word, so it wouldn't be in the noise file.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...