Like Operator in Entity Framework? Like Operator in Entity Framework? sql-server sql-server

Like Operator in Entity Framework?


I don't know anything about EF really, but in LINQ to SQL you usually express a LIKE clause using String.Contains:

where entity.Name.Contains("xyz")

translates to

WHERE Name LIKE '%xyz%'

(Use StartsWith and EndsWith for other behaviour.)

I'm not entirely sure whether that's helpful, because I don't understand what you mean when you say you're trying to implement LIKE. If I've misunderstood completely, let me know and I'll delete this answer :)


This is an old post now, but for anyone looking for the answer, this link should help. Go to this answer if you are already using EF 6.2.x. To this answer if you're using EF Core 2.x

Short version:

SqlFunctions.PatIndex method - returns the starting position of the first occurrence of a pattern in a specified expression, or zeros if the pattern is not found, on all valid text and character data types

Namespace: System.Data.Objects.SqlClientAssembly: System.Data.Entity (in System.Data.Entity.dll)

A bit of an explanation also appears in this forum thread.


I had the same problem.

For now, I've settled with client-side Wildcard/Regex filtering based on http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/11556/Converting-Wildcards-to-Regexes?msg=1423024#xx1423024xx - it's simple and works as expected.

I've found another discussion on this topic: http://forums.asp.net/t/1654093.aspx/2/10
This post looks promising if you use Entity Framework >= 4.0:

Use SqlFunctions.PatIndex:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.data.objects.sqlclient.sqlfunctions.patindex.aspx

Like this:

var q = EFContext.Products.Where(x =>SqlFunctions.PatIndex("%CD%BLUE%", x.ProductName) > 0);

Note: this solution is for SQL-Server only, because it uses non-standard PATINDEX function.