Question

In SQL Server, is there a way to search (and format) a result for a certain string (like preg_match in PHP):

SELECT (IF (col1 contains 'http'){'<a>' + col 1 + '</a>'}
else {'<b>' + col1 + '</b>'}),
col2
FROM Table

… etc.

Is this possible? I want to format the results based on their content.

Answer 1

Try this:

SELECT CASE WHEN col1 LIKE '%http%' THEN '<a>' + col1 + '</a>' ELSE '<b>' + col1 + '</b>' END AS 'Desired Column Name', col2
FROM table

See the MSDN Documentation here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181765.aspx