Question

So I have got an ArrayList called arr, which contains strings such as “decoration”, “metal”, “paper” etc.

What I want to do is loop though that ArrayList, adding each tag to a query string with which to get data from a database.
Currently I have something like this:

String strSel="select * from Table1 where Tags";

for(int x=0;x<arr.Count;x++){
  if (x == arr.Count - 1)
    {
      strSel += " like '%'"+arr[x]+"'%'";
    }
      else
    {
      strSel += " like '%'" + arr[x] + "'%' or Tags";
    }
}

cmdSel=new SqlCommand(strSel,connectionName);
sqlDataReaderName=cmdSel.ExecuteReader();

Anyway I get an error about “Incorrect syntax near bla”…its has probably got something to do with the single quotes or wildcards but I can’t figure it out. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

you should remove extra single quote before and after the percent symbol

strSel += " like '%" + arr[x] + "%'";

the reason why error has been thrown is because your query is formed like this

select * from Table1 where Tags like '%'hello'%'
                                       ^     ^ extra single quote that
                                               should be removed