SQL - Need help build a select query

Question

I've a table (hosted in a database SQL Server) where i've products stored. The person who inserted a few products last week, instead of making new lines with "Enter" (tinyMCE would created a </br> tag) in description, she had typed "Space" creating white spaces (she though that typing white spaces, creates new line when it goes to the new line. Really dumb).

So, i've records something like this:

Description:       &nbsp   &nbsp   &nbsp   &nbsp   &nbsp    

Now i'm trying to create a query for search this records, but i think i'm using LIKE operator in a wrong way.

SELECT * From ProductsDescription WHERE Description LIKE '%&nbsp;&nbsp;'

It's returning 0 rows. Is anything wrong in that query?

Thanks

Here's a similar question - have you reviewed this answer yet? stackoverflow.com/questions/457701/… — Bob Palmer
– Bob Palmer, Commented Oct 17, 2010 at 2:02
(A direct link to some additional SQL for this) lazycoders.blogspot.com/2007/06/… — Bob Palmer
– Bob Palmer, Commented Oct 17, 2010 at 2:04

mechanical_meat · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-17 02:08:53Z

3

Get rid of the spaces inside the single-quotes.
Append another %.

E.g.:

SELECT * From ProductsDescription WHERE Description LIKE '%&nbsp;&nbsp;%';

Edit:
Ignore point #1 above. As @Hippo notes in a comment that was simply a formatting issue. I have edited the question to remove the extraneous spaces.

edited Oct 17, 2010 at 2:08

answered Oct 17, 2010 at 1:59

mechanical_meat

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2 Comments

AbdullahC Over a year ago

The spaces are not really there in Guilherme's question - try selecting the query and pasting it somewhere.

Gui Over a year ago

The problem was the other % at the end of. Thanks

LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-17 01:57:41Z

3

Try adding another percentage sign at the end as well, in case the last character isn't a semi-colon, i.e:

SELECT * From ProductsDescription WHERE Description LIKE '%&nbsp;&nbsp;%'

answered Oct 17, 2010 at 1:57

LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir

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Comments

Alex · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-17 02:00:22Z

1

select * from ProductsDescription where description like '%nbsp%'

answered Oct 17, 2010 at 2:00

Alex

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3 Comments

AbdullahC Over a year ago

You might end up with false positives with this search. It's better to include at least two ' 's, since you know all results will contain that.

Alex Over a year ago

The point was to add the second %. Following your logic, why not add 3   instead?

AbdullahC Over a year ago

It wasn't really clear what the point was, since you also stripped off the & and ;. Were those also problematic? I don't see a problem in adding 3   - but the OP specified 2 so you could have left it that way.

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