Question

I have a parameter in a stored procedure called @name. If the length of this parameter is 1, a single column (LastName) needs to be searched, else two columns (FirstName & LastName) need to be searched.

Here’s what I have so far –

 WHERE   
    p.Year = @year
    AND
    (CASE WHEN LEN(@name) = 1 THEN (p.LastName LIKE @name + '%')
          ELSE (p.LastName LIKE @name + '%' OR p.FirstName LIKE @name + '%')
     END)

It gives me this error

Incorrect syntax near the keyword ‘like’.`

How do I accomplish this?

Answer 1

You can do

WHERE  p.Year = @year
        AND (
        /*Always look at this*/
        p.LastName LIKE @name + '%'
       /*Only need to take account of FirstName if len(@name) <> 1 */
       OR ( len(@name) <> 1 AND p.FirstName LIKE @name + '%' )         
        )

But breaking this up into two separate queries and IF ... ELSE conditional logic may well give you a better plan rather than trying one catch all query for both cases.