[.net] How to do SQL Like % in Linq?

I have a procedure in SQL that I am trying to turn into Linq:

SELECT O.Id, O.Name as Organization
FROM Organizations O
JOIN OrganizationsHierarchy OH ON O.Id=OH.OrganizationsId
where OH.Hierarchy like '%/12/%'

The line I am most concerned with is:

where OH.Hierarchy like '%/12/%'

I have a column that stores the hierarchy like /1/3/12/ for example so I just use %/12/% to search for it.

My question is, what is the Linq or .NET equivalent to using the percent sign?

Try this, this works fine for me

from record in context.Organization where record.Hierarchy.Contains(12) select record;

If you are using VB.NET, then the answer would be "*". Here is what your where clause would look like...

Where OH.Hierarchy Like '*/12/*'

Note: "*" Matches zero or more characters. Here is the msdn article for the Like operator.

For those how tumble here like me looking for a way to a "SQL Like" method in LINQ, I've something that is working very good.

I'm in a case where I cannot alter the Database in any way to change the column collation. So I've to find a way in my LINQ to do it.

I'm using the helper method SqlFunctions.PatIndex witch act similarly to the real SQL LIKE operator.

First I need enumerate all possible diacritics (a word that I just learned) in the search value to get something like:

déjà     => d[éèêëeÉÈÊËE]j[aàâäAÀÂÄ]
montreal => montr[éèêëeÉÈÊËE][aàâäAÀÂÄ]l
montréal => montr[éèêëeÉÈÊËE][aàâäAÀÂÄ]l

and then in LINQ for exemple:

var city = "montr[éèêëeÉÈÊËE][aàâäAÀÂÄ]l";
var data = (from loc in _context.Locations
                     where SqlFunctions.PatIndex(city, loc.City) > 0
                     select loc.City).ToList();

So for my needs I've written a Helper/Extension method

   public static class SqlServerHelper
    {

        private static readonly List<KeyValuePair<string, string>> Diacritics = new List<KeyValuePair<string, string>>()
        {
            new KeyValuePair<string, string>("A", "aàâäAÀÂÄ"),
            new KeyValuePair<string, string>("E", "éèêëeÉÈÊËE"),
            new KeyValuePair<string, string>("U", "uûüùUÛÜÙ"),
            new KeyValuePair<string, string>("C", "cçCÇ"),
            new KeyValuePair<string, string>("I", "iîïIÎÏ"),
            new KeyValuePair<string, string>("O", "ôöÔÖ"),
            new KeyValuePair<string, string>("Y", "YŸÝýyÿ")
        };

        public static string EnumarateDiacritics(this string stringToDiatritics)
        {
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(stringToDiatritics.Trim()))
                return stringToDiatritics;

            var diacriticChecked = string.Empty;

            foreach (var c in stringToDiatritics.ToCharArray())
            {
                var diac = Diacritics.FirstOrDefault(o => o.Value.ToCharArray().Contains(c));
                if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(diac.Key))
                    continue;

                //Prevent from doing same letter/Diacritic more than one time
                if (diacriticChecked.Contains(diac.Key))
                    continue;

                diacriticChecked += diac.Key;

                stringToDiatritics = stringToDiatritics.Replace(c.ToString(), "[" + diac.Value + "]");
            }

            stringToDiatritics = "%" + stringToDiatritics + "%";
            return stringToDiatritics;
        }
    }

If any of you have suggestion to enhance this method, I'll be please to hear you.

Way late, but I threw this together to be able to do String comparisons using SQL Like style wildcards:

public static class StringLikeExtensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Tests a string to be Like another string containing SQL Like style wildcards
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="value">string to be searched</param>
    /// <param name="searchString">the search string containing wildcards</param>
    /// <returns>value.Like(searchString)</returns>
    /// <example>value.Like("a")</example>
    /// <example>value.Like("a%")</example>
    /// <example>value.Like("%b")</example>
    /// <example>value.Like("a%b")</example>
    /// <example>value.Like("a%b%c")</example>
    /// <remarks>base author -- Ruard van Elburg from StackOverflow, modifications by dvn</remarks>
    /// <remarks>converted to a String extension by sja</remarks>
    /// <seealso cref="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1040380/wildcard-search-for-linq"/>
    public static bool Like(this String value, string searchString)
    {
        bool result = false;

        var likeParts = searchString.Split(new char[] { '%' });

        for (int i = 0; i < likeParts.Length; i++)
        {
            if (likeParts[i] == String.Empty)
            {
                continue;   // "a%"
            }

            if (i == 0)
            {
                if (likeParts.Length == 1) // "a"
                {
                    result = value.Equals(likeParts[i], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
                }
                else // "a%" or "a%b"
                {
                    result = value.StartsWith(likeParts[i], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
                }
            }
            else if (i == likeParts.Length - 1) // "a%b" or "%b"
            {
                result &= value.EndsWith(likeParts[i], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
            }
            else // "a%b%c"
            {
                int current = value.IndexOf(likeParts[i], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
                int previous = value.IndexOf(likeParts[i - 1], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
                result &= previous < current;
            }
        }

        return result;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Tests a string containing SQL Like style wildcards to be ReverseLike another string 
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="value">search string containing wildcards</param>
    /// <param name="compareString">string to be compared</param>
    /// <returns>value.ReverseLike(compareString)</returns>
    /// <example>value.ReverseLike("a")</example>
    /// <example>value.ReverseLike("abc")</example>
    /// <example>value.ReverseLike("ab")</example>
    /// <example>value.ReverseLike("axb")</example>
    /// <example>value.ReverseLike("axbyc")</example>
    /// <remarks>reversed logic of Like String extension</remarks>
    public static bool ReverseLike(this String value, string compareString)
    {
        bool result = false;

        var likeParts = value.Split(new char[] {'%'});

        for (int i = 0; i < likeParts.Length; i++)
        {
            if (likeParts[i] == String.Empty)
            {
                continue;   // "a%"
            }

            if (i == 0)
            {
                if (likeParts.Length == 1) // "a"
                {
                    result = compareString.Equals(likeParts[i], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
                }
                else // "a%" or "a%b"
                {
                    result = compareString.StartsWith(likeParts[i], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
                }
            }
            else if (i == likeParts.Length - 1) // "a%b" or "%b"
            {
                result &= compareString.EndsWith(likeParts[i], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
            }
            else // "a%b%c"
            {
                int current = compareString.IndexOf(likeParts[i], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
                int previous = compareString.IndexOf(likeParts[i - 1], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
                result &= previous < current;
            }
        }

        return result;
    }
}

Use this:

from c in dc.Organization
where SqlMethods.Like(c.Hierarchy, "%/12/%")
select *;

I'm assuming you're using Linq-to-SQL* (see note below). If so, use string.Contains, string.StartsWith, and string.EndsWith to generate SQL that use the SQL LIKE operator.

from o in dc.Organization
join oh in dc.OrganizationsHierarchy on o.Id equals oh.OrganizationsId
where oh.Hierarchy.Contains(@"/12/")
select new { o.Id, o.Name }

or

from o in dc.Organization
where o.OrganizationsHierarchy.Hierarchy.Contains(@"/12/")
select new { o.Id, o.Name }

Note: * = if you are using the ADO.Net Entity Framework (EF / L2E) in .net 3.5, be aware that it will not do the same translation as Linq-to-SQL. Although L2S does a proper translation, L2E v1 (3.5) will translate into a t-sql expression that will force a full table scan on the table you're querying unless there is another better discriminator in your where clause or join filters.
Update: This is fixed in EF/L2E v4 (.net 4.0), so it will generate a SQL LIKE just like L2S does.

I do always this:

from h in OH
where h.Hierarchy.Contains("/12/")
select h

I know I don't use the like statement but it's work fine in the background is this translated into a query with a like statement.

Well indexOf works for me too

var result = from c in SampleList
where c.LongName.IndexOf(SearchQuery) >= 0
select c;

System.Data.Linq.SqlClient.SqlMethods.Like("mystring", "%string")

Use such code

try
{
    using (DatosDataContext dtc = new DatosDataContext())
    {
        var query = from pe in dtc.Personal_Hgo
                    where SqlMethods.Like(pe.nombre, "%" + txtNombre.Text + "%")
                    select new
                    {
                        pe.numero
                        ,
                        pe.nombre
                    };
        dgvDatos.DataSource = query.ToList();
    }
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    string mensaje = ex.Message;
}

.NET core now has EF.Functions.Like

  var isMatch = EF.Functions.Like(stringThatMightMatch, pattern);

Contains is used in Linq ,Just like Like is used in SQL .

string _search="/12/";

. . .

.Where(s => s.Hierarchy.Contains(_search))

You can write your SQL script in Linq as Following :

 var result= Organizations.Join(OrganizationsHierarchy.Where(s=>s.Hierarchy.Contains("/12/")),s=>s.Id,s=>s.OrganizationsId,(org,orgH)=>new {org,orgH});

In case you are not matching numeric strings, always good to have common case:

.Where(oh => oh.Hierarchy.ToUpper().Contains(mySearchString.ToUpper()))