searching for the [ and ] characters

[sdpsc]

How can I search for [ and ] brackets in a SQL statement? It doesn't work just searching for it like a normal string.

 

[r937]

select foo from yourtable where bar = '['

rudy

http://r937.com/

SQL Consulting

 

[sdpsc]

But searching for it normally with a select statement doesn't work.

 

[r937]

could you explain please? what does "searching for it normally with a select statement" mean? could you give an example of the select statement that's not working?

rudy

http://r937.com/

SQL Consulting

 

[sdpsc]

There are [ and ] characters in a text field in a database. If I search like this:

select * from table where field like '*[*';

Then it finds nothing.

 

[JonFer]

I think you are trying to use LIKE which interprets [ as the start of [] which is used to list characters to match for a single position. If I'm wrong, please post the error message you are getting.

Like "*[abc][hsp]*" -> finds where the field has an a, b, or c immediately followed by an h, s, or p.

To search a field for [ at any position you need to enclose it with square brackets like this:

Where fieldname Like '*[[]*'

To search a field for [ followed by ] use this:

Where fieldname Like '*[[]*[]]*'


John

http://www.interautomateconsulting.com

 

[sdpsc]

That was it, thanks JonFer!