Using Full-Text Search instead of "Like '%____%' query

Question

I am quering a table (about 150,000 rows and growing) with a big varchar field (size 2000) which can't be indexed (and there's no point even if it could be). I am using Sql Server 2008. The query I used till now was:

select * from tbl_name where field_name like '%bla bla%'

("bla bla" is according to what the user searched for)

In order to improve performence, I wann'a start using the Full-Text Search feature (already defined a catalog and a text index on this field). I am a bit confused from what I read about quering with this option. what query should I use in order to get exactly the same results as the query I used to use before?

• Comments:
  1. I would like to get results which are not case sensative, as it worked before (meaning if the user searches for "LG" he will also get results that contains "Lg").
  2. If user enters "Sams" he will also get "Samsung".

Thanks! Eran.

Answer 1

CONTAINS() will get you the LIKE() functionality you are seeking with one exception - I noticed in the comments that you also want to match the second entry - "hhhEranttt". Unfortunately, due to the lack of suffix search this is currently not possible.

For the other entries you can run a prefix search - CONTAINS(field_name, '"eran*"') which matches all the other entries since full-text searches are case-insensitive.

HTH.