[sql] Use a LIKE statement on SQL Server XML Datatype

If you have a varchar field you can easily do SELECT * FROM TABLE WHERE ColumnA LIKE '%Test%' to see if that column contains a certain string.

How do you do that for XML Type?

I have the following which returns only rows that have a 'Text' node but I need to search within that node

select * from WebPageContent where data.exist('/PageContent/Text') = 1

Another option is to search the XML as a string by converting it to a string and then using LIKE. However as a computed column can't be part of a WHERE clause you need to wrap it in another SELECT like this:

SELECT * FROM
    (SELECT *, CONVERT(varchar(MAX), [COLUMNA]) as [XMLDataString] FROM TABLE) x
WHERE [XMLDataString] like '%Test%'

This is what I am going to use based on marc_s answer:

SELECT 
SUBSTRING(DATA.value('(/PAGECONTENT/TEXT)[1]', 'VARCHAR(100)'),PATINDEX('%NORTH%',DATA.value('(/PAGECONTENT/TEXT)[1]', 'VARCHAR(100)')) - 20,999)

FROM WEBPAGECONTENT 
WHERE COALESCE(PATINDEX('%NORTH%',DATA.value('(/PAGECONTENT/TEXT)[1]', 'VARCHAR(100)')),0) > 0

Return a substring on the search where the search criteria exists

Yet another option is to cast the XML as nvarchar, and then search for the given string as if the XML vas a nvarchar field.

SELECT * 
FROM Table
WHERE CAST(Column as nvarchar(max)) LIKE '%TEST%'

I love this solution as it is clean, easy to remember, hard to mess up, and can be used as a part of a where clause.

EDIT: As Cliff mentions it, you could use:

...nvarchar if there's characters that don't convert to varchar