Question

I write some queries like this:

SELECT *
FROM Sample.dbo.Temp
WHERE
   Name LIKE '%ab%'
OR Name LIKE '%fg%'
OR NAME LIKE '%asd%'
OR ...
OR ...
OR Name LIKE '%kj%'

Is there anyway I can rewrite this query like this:

SELECT *
FROM Sample.dbo.Temp
WHERE
   Name LIKE (
             '%ab%'  
          OR '%fg%'
          OR '%asd%'
          OR ...
          OR ...
          OR '%kj%'
              )

Just looks more comfortable both from a readability point of view and manageability. If the column Name changes, I can always make one change instead of a hundred (or using Find and Replace). Any suggestions?

Answer 1

No, you have to keep repeating the LIKE

Although you could probably fool around a bit to make it work something like that, it won’t be prettier or more readable.

Perhaps you should generate the query programmatically instead of manually writing this?

PS: perhaps a fulltext index is a better idea here?