Search for whole word with Linq to SQL

Question

Hi,

I'm using VB.NET and Linq to SQL to do search query. I'm using the Contains method of Linq to look up the input keyword. It's like this note.note_content.Contains(InputKeyWord).

The problem is that If I search for the "cord" then "according" will also come up. I want the result to be matched with keyword only.

How do I do to search for the whole keyword with Linq ?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Are the delimiters or spaces around the data? You can use the .Like (InputKeyword) to refine it a bit more.

Answer 2

I'm assuming that the inputKeyword can appear at the beginning, any place in between and at the end of the note, therefore you need to have 3 OR clauses for the 3 possible places where it can appear. So, your LINQ where clause may end up looking like this.

note.note_content.StartsWith(InputKeyword & " ") OR _
note.note_content.EndsWith(" " & InputKeyword) OR _
note.note_content.Contains(" " & InputKeyword & " ")

This is not a pretty solution, but It should work. If you are adept with regular expressions, that's an option with LINQ as well.

Read this: How to Combine LINQ with Regular Expressions

Answer 3

I guess your keywords has delimiters on the beginning and on the end. If that's true, you could use

from n in note
where n.note_content.Contains(beginDelimiter + InputKeyWord + endDelimiter) ||
      n.note_content.StartsWith(InputKeyWord + endDelimiter) || 
      n.note_content.EndsWith(beginDelimiter + InputKeyWord)
select n