How do I search for a wildcard character in Microsoft CRM 4.0?

Question

I need to search for accounts in Microsoft CRM, using a wildcard search to get a "contains" search for the user's input. So if the user enters "ABC", I use ConditionOperator.Like and the value "%ABC%".

My question is, how would I search for a customer name that contains a percentage sign, such as "100% Great llc"? I can't find a way to escape the %.

Answer 1

Try using square blocks for special characters, for instance like [%]. So the condition would be: 100[%] Great llc or %100[%] Great llc%.

--EDIT--

This is in response to your comment.

Try utilizing the ConditionExpression, something like following:

//1. Condition expression.
ConditionExpression nameCondition= new ConditionExpression();
            nameCondition.AttributeName = "AccountName";
            nameCondition.Operator = ConditionOperator.Like;
            nameCondition.Values = new string[] { "%100[%] Great llc%" };

//2. Create filter expression
FilterExpression nameFilter = new FilterExpression();
nameFilter.Conditions = new ConditionExpression[] { nameCondition };

//3. Provide columns
ColumnSet resultSetColumns = new ColumnSet();
            resultSetColumns.Attributes = new string[] { "name", "address" };

//4. Prepare query expression
QueryExpression qryExpression = new QueryExpression();
            qryExpression.Criteria = nameFilter;
            qryExpression.ColumnSet = resultSetColumns;

//5. Set the table to query.
qryExpression.EntityName = EntityName.account.ToString();

//6. BusinessEntityCollection accountsResultSet = service.RetrieveMultiple(qryExpression);

Though I have played alot with CRM, but never came across special characters scenario. Let me know your findings. This article has some revelations.

Answer 2

Sounds like you're looking for a SQL-based approach so I'm not sure if this helps.

One way I know is through the user interface with an asterisk *

So if you want to find all of the accounts that have a % sign just type in *% into the account search.