Microsoft Knowledge Base Email Alertz

(200043) - When performing a full-text search on SQL Server character data, or when using a SQL distributed query with the Microsoft Index Server OLE DB provider (MSDIXS) and a prefix expansion search for a compound word that contains a hyphen (for example,...

Search KbAlertz

Advanced Search

Receive Microsoft Knowledge Base articles by E-Mail?

Every night we scan the Microsoft Knowledge Base. If technologies you're interested in are updated, we'll send you an e-mail. You only get one e-mail a day, and only when new articles are added.

Click here to create a
FREE account
Already have an account?
[Click here to Login]











Microsoft Knowledge Base Article

This article contents is Microsoft Copyrighted material.
©2005-©2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Trademarks

Article ID: 200043 - Last Review: February 23, 2011 - Revision: 5.0

PRB: Dashes '-' Ignored in Search with SQL Full-Text and MSIDXS Queries

This article was previously published under Q200043

On This Page

SYMPTOMS

When performing a full-text search on SQL Server character data, or when using a SQL distributed query with the Microsoft Index Server OLE DB provider (MSDIXS) and a prefix expansion search for a compound word that contains a hyphen (for example, "XYZ-A*"), the results produced may not be as expected.

CAUSE

 A full-text search considers a word to be a string of characters without spaces or punctuation. The occurrence of a non-alphanumeric character can "break" a word during a search. Because the SQL Server full-text search is a word-based engine, punctuation generally is not considered and is ignored when searching the index. Therefore, a CONTAINS clause like 'CONTAINS(testing, "computer-failure")' would match a row with the value, "The failure to find my computer would be expensive.". 

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, try the following:
  • Only use alphanumeric characters when using the SQL Server full-text index facilities.

    -or-
  • Where non-alphanumeric character must be used in the search critera (primarily the dash '-' character), use the Transact-SQL LIKE clause instead of the FULLTEXT or CONTAINS predicates.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft SQL Server version 7.0 provides the ability to perform a full-text query on character data stored in SQL Server tables. You can also use a SQL distributed query with the MSDIXS provider to search for file system data. Using the dash ('-') in a proximity search is not supported and may give unexpected results.

REFERENCES

For more details on SQL Server full-text search, refer to the SQL Server Books Online.

For more information on the use of the CONTAINS clause with the Microsoft Index Server (MSDIXS) provider, refer to the Index Server documentation in the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack documentation.

For additional information about how full-text search and the LIKE clause are implemented in SQL Server 7.0, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
182829  (http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=182829/EN-US/ ) DOCERR: Prefix Expansion with Index Server OLEDB Provider 2.0

APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition
  • Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Standard Edition
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based Systems
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise X64 Edition
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard X64 Edition
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Developer
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Developer
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard
Keywords: 
kbdatabase kbprb KB200043
       

Community Feedback System

Very often, it takes hours to solve a problem. Very often, you've looked high and low, and have tried a lot of solutions. When you finally found it, chances are, it was because someone else helped you. Here's your chance to give back. Use our community feedback tool to let others know what worked for you and what didn't.

Please also understand that the community feedback system is not warranted to be correct, it's simply a system that we've built to let people try and help each other. If something in a feedback response doesn't make sense to you, or you're not comfortable making changes that the feedback talks about (like registry edits), please consult a professional.

Thank you for using kbAlertz.com Feedback System.

-- Scott Cate