SQL SERVER – Tips from the SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Finding Apostrophes in String and Text – Day 3 of 35

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Finding Apostrophes in string and text

For the last two days we have been using wildcard examples from the Beginning SQL Joes 2 Pros Volume 1 book. Today is our last wildcard example. Please take one more look all the records in the Grant table of the JProCo database. Notice GrantID 004 and 005 have a single quote (apostrophe) in the name. See figure below:

What if you want to find grants that have an apostrophe (single quote) in their names such as Norman’s Outreach? Everything inside single quotes after the LIKE evaluates every record to give you your final result set.

The first single quote starts the string and it ends with the second single quote. Everything between the single quotes is part of the search string. Everything before the first single quote and after the second single quote is not part of the search string. The single quote encompasses or delimits the pattern you are searching. A new challenge arises here. The following query produces a syntax error.

--Bad query results in an error.
SELECT *
FROM [GRANT]
WHERE GrantName LIKE '%'%'

'Msg 105, Level 15, State 1, Line 4
Unclosed quotation mark after the character string ‘

The problem lies in the fact that SQL Server assumes the predicate is done after the second single quote. SQL Server sees everything after that second single quote as an error in your SQL code. Your intentions were lost or misunderstood. To forego the special meaning of the single quote, precede it with another single quote. The code and results are seen in the figure below.

Using two single quotes filters your result set for a grant name with an apostrophe. You now have two records with a single quote in your result set. To view all names without a single quote you would simply change the LIKE to NOT LIKE in the WHERE clause.

--Find GrantNames without a single quote
SELECT *
FROM [GRANT]
WHERE GrantName NOT LIKE '%''%'

Note: If you want to setup the sample JProCo database on your system you can watch this video.

Question 3:

Q 3:You want to find all first names that have an apostrophe anywhere in the name. Which SQL code would you use?

1. SELECT * FROM Employee
   WHERE Firstname like ‘_’% ‘
2. SELECT * FROM Employee
   WHERE Firstname like ‘_”% ‘
3. SELECT * FROM Employee
   WHERE Firstname like ‘_[‘]% ‘
4. SELECT * FROM Employee
   WHERE Firstname like ‘%’% ‘
5. SELECT * FROM Employee
   WHERE Firstname like ‘%”% ‘
6. SELECT * FROM Employee
   WHERE Firstname like ‘%[‘]% ‘

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Reference:  Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)