[sql] Check if a column contains text using SQL

I have a column which is called studentID, but I have millions of records and somehow the application has input some arbitrary text in the column.

How do I search:

SELECT *
  FROM STUDENTS
 WHERE STUDENTID CONTAINS TEXT

This question is related to sql sql-server tsql

The answer is


Try LIKE construction, e.g. (assuming StudentId is of type Char, VarChar etc.)

  select * 
    from Students
   where StudentId like '%' || TEXT || '%' -- <- TEXT - text to contain

Just try below script:

Below code works only if studentid column datatype is varchar

SELECT * FROM STUDENTS WHERE STUDENTID like '%Searchstring%'

Suppose STUDENTID contains some characters or numbers that you already know i.e. 'searchstring' then below query will work for you.

You could try this:

select * from STUDENTS where CHARINDEX('searchstring',STUDENTID)>0

I think this one is the fastest and easiest one.


Try this:

SElECT * FROM STUDENTS WHERE LEN(CAST(STUDENTID AS VARCHAR)) > 0

With this you get the rows where STUDENTID contains text


Examples related to sql

Passing multiple values for same variable in stored procedure SQL permissions for roles Generic XSLT Search and Replace template Access And/Or exclusions Pyspark: Filter dataframe based on multiple conditions Subtracting 1 day from a timestamp date PYODBC--Data source name not found and no default driver specified select rows in sql with latest date for each ID repeated multiple times ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN failed because one or more objects access this column Create Local SQL Server database

Examples related to sql-server

Passing multiple values for same variable in stored procedure SQL permissions for roles Count the Number of Tables in a SQL Server Database Visual Studio 2017 does not have Business Intelligence Integration Services/Projects ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN failed because one or more objects access this column Create Local SQL Server database How to create temp table using Create statement in SQL Server? SQL Query Where Date = Today Minus 7 Days How do I pass a list as a parameter in a stored procedure? SQL Server date format yyyymmdd

Examples related to tsql

Passing multiple values for same variable in stored procedure Count the Number of Tables in a SQL Server Database Change Date Format(DD/MM/YYYY) in SQL SELECT Statement Stored procedure with default parameters Format number as percent in MS SQL Server EXEC sp_executesql with multiple parameters SQL Server after update trigger How to compare datetime with only date in SQL Server Text was truncated or one or more characters had no match in the target code page including the primary key in an unpivot Printing integer variable and string on same line in SQL