Question

I need to match abreviations, where a dot means everything that starts with, like:

Rows:
  blue love
  abo love
  comeb love
  blue lauer
  blue alo

(a)

Input:
  b. love

Expected output:
  blue love

(b)

Input:
 b. l.

Expected output:
  blue love
  blue lauer

Any tip?

Answer 1

You could convert the . to a % so that you can do a LIKE

SELECT @yourfilter = REPLACE(@yourfilter, '.', '%');

Then just use it:

SELECT * FROM TABLE WHERE COLUMN LIKE @yourfilter

It would be equivalent to:

SELECT * FROM TABLE WHERE COLUMN LIKE 'b% love'

OR

SELECT * FROM TABLE WHERE COLUMN LIKE 'b% l%'

Here is a working SQL Fiddle example