When performing a full text search for a prefix, the database server uses a text index to find all rows that contain terms matching the prefix. Columns specified in a CONTAINS clause must be part of a text index. See Text indexes.

For example, suppose you want to search the Employees table for employees who live on a street that starts with haw. You can query the Employees table as follows:

SELECT Surname, Street, City 
   FROM Employees 
   WHERE CONTAINS ( Street, 'haw*' );

An employee with the street name Haw, Hawthorpe, or Hawk would also be returned. Employees with the street names Shaw or Chawdrie, are not returned.

Individual terms in a phrase can be prefixes. For example, the phrase ' "12* haw*" ' is acceptable.