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Using the Transact SQL Patindex Function

The Transact SQL Patindex function can be used to return the position of the first instance of a specific pattern within a string.

Patindex Examples

The following transact SQL statement searches for customers in the Northwind SQL Server sample database that have the string 'manager' somewhere in their contact title

select CustomerID, ContactTitle, patindex('%manager%', ContactTitle) as 'ManagerPos'
from Customers
where patindex('%manager%', ContactTitle) > 0

Note that if a pattern is not matched in a string, the Patindex function returns a zero.

When using the Patindex function, the underscore character can be used to represent a wildcard of a single character. In the following SQL statement, the patindex function is used to search for customers that have a 3 character first name beginning with li. This statement will return the two customers called Liz Nixon and Liu Wong.

select CustomerID, ContactName, patindex('Li_ %', ContactName) as 'NamePos'
from Customers
where patindex('Li_ %', ContactName) > 0

String Matching Without Pattern Matching

For matching strings where wildcard pattern matching is not required, it is possible to use the Charindex function.

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