sql server - SQL 'LIKE' query using '%' where the search criteria contains '%'

Question

I have an SQL query as below.

Select * from table 
where name like '%' + search_criteria + '%' 

If search_criteria = 'abc', it will return data containing xxxabcxxxx which is fine.

But if my search_criteria = 'abc%', it will still return data containing xxxabcxxx, which should not be the case.

How do I handle this situation?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10803489/sql-like-query-using-where-the-search-criteria-contains

Answer 1

If you want a % symbol in search_criteria to be treated as a literal character rather than as a wildcard, escape it to [%]

... where name like '%' + replace(search_criteria, '%', '[%]') + '%'