Prefix searching

The full text search feature allows you to search for the beginning portion of a term. This is called a prefix search. To perform a prefix search, you specify the prefix you want to search for, followed by an asterisk. This is called a prefix term.

Keywords for the CONTAINS clause cannot be used for prefix searching unless they are in a phrase. For a list of CONTAINS keywords, see CONTAINS search condition.

You also can specify multiple prefix terms in a query string, including within phrases (for example, '"shi* fab"').

For complete syntax restrictions for prefix searching, see Allowed syntax for asterisk (*).

The following example queries the MarketingInformation table for items that start with the prefix shi:

SELECT ID, ct.score, Description
   FROM MarketingInformation CONTAINS ( MarketingInformation.Description, 'shi*' ) AS ct
   ORDER BY ct.score DESC;

ID	score	Description
906	2.295363835537917	`<html><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"><title>Visor</title></head><body lang=EN-US><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Lightweight 100% organically grown cotton construction. Shields against sun and precipitation. Metallic ions in the fibers inhibit bacterial growth, and help neutralize odor.</span></p></body></html>`
901	1.6883275743936228	`<html><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"><title>Tee Shirt</title></head><body lang=EN-US><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>We've improved the design of this perennial favorite. A sleek and technical shirt built for the trail, track, or sidewalk. UPF rating of 50+.</span></p></body></html>`
903	1.6336529491832605	`<html><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"><title>Tee Shirt</title></head><body lang=EN-US><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>A sporty, casual shirt made of recycled water bottles. It will serve you equally well on trails or around town. The fabric has a wicking finish to pull perspiration away from your skin.</span></p></body></html>`
902	1.6181703448678983	`<html><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"><title>Tee Shirt</title></head><body lang=EN-US><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>This simple, sleek, and lightweight technical shirt is designed for high-intensity workouts in hot and humid weather. The recycled polyester fabric is gentle on the earth and soft against your skin.</span></p></body></html>`

ID 906 has the highest score because the term shield occurs less frequently than shirt in the text index.

Prefix searches on GENERIC text indexes

On GENERIC text indexes, the behavior for prefix searches is as follows:

If a prefix term is longer than the MAXIMUM TERM LENGTH, it is dropped from the query string since there can be no terms in the text index that exceed the MAXIMUM TERM LENGTH. So, on a text index with MAXIMUM TERM LENGTH 3, searching for 'red appl*' is equivalent to searching for 'red'.
If a prefix term is shorter than MINIMUM TERM LENGTH, and is not part of a phrase search, the prefix search proceeds normally. So, on a GENERIC text index where MINIMUM TERM LENGTH is 5, searching for 'macintosh a*' returns indexed rows that contain macintosh and any terms of length 5 or greater that start with a.
If a prefix term is shorter than MINIMUM TERM LENGTH, but is part of a phrase search, the prefix term is dropped from the query. So, on a GENERIC text index where MINIMUM TERM LENGTH is 5, searching for '"macintosh appl* turnover"' is equivalent to searching for macintosh followed by any term followed by turnover. A row containing "macintosh turnover" will not be found; there must be a term between macintosh and turnover.

Prefix searches on NGRAM text indexes

On NGRAM text indexes, prefix searching can return unexpected results since an NGRAM text index contains only n-grams, and contains no information about the beginning of terms. Query terms are also broken into n-grams, and searching is performed using the n-grams not the query terms. Because of this, the following behaviors should be noted:

If a prefix term is shorter than the n-gram length (MAXIMUM TERM LENGTH), the query returns all indexed rows that contain n-grams starting with the prefix term. For example, on a 3-gram text index, searching for 'ea*' returns all indexed rows containing n-grams starting with ea. So, if the terms weather and fear were indexed, the rows would be considered matches since their n-grams include eat and ear, respectively.
If a prefix term is longer than n-gram length, and is not part of a phrase, and not an argument in a proximity search, the prefix term is converted to an n-grammed phrase and the asterisk is dropped. For example, on a 3-gram text index, searching for 'purple blac*' is equivalent to searching for '"pur urp rpl ple" AND "bla lac"'.
In the case of phrases, the following behavior also takes place:
- If the prefix term is the only term in the phrase, it is converted to an n-grammed phrase and the asterisk is dropped. For example, on a 3-gram text index, searching for '"purpl*"' is equivalent to searching for '"pur urp rpl"'.
- If the prefix term is in the last position of the phrase, the asterisk is dropped and the terms are converted to a phrase of n-grams. For example, on a 3-gram text index, searching for '"purple blac*"' is equivalent to searching for '"pur urp rpl ple bla lac"'.
- If the prefix term is not in the last position of the phrase, the phrase is broken up into phrases that are ANDed together. For example, on a 3-gram text index, searching for '"purp* blac*"' is equivalent to searching for '"pur urp" AND "bla lac"'.
If a prefix term is an argument in a proximity search, the proximity search is converted to an AND. For example, on a 3-gram text index, searching for 'red NEAR[1] appl*' is equivalent to searching for 'red AND "app ppl"'.