Using SQL Server 2008. I have a table with the following column:
sampleData (nvarchar(max))
The value for this column in some of these rows are lists formatted as follows:
["value1","value2","value3"]
I'm trying to write a simple query that will return all rows with lists formatted like this, by just detecting the opening bracket.
SELECT * from sampleTable where sampleData like '[%'
The above query doesn't work because '[' is a special character, and I can't for the life of me figure out how to escape the bracket so my query does what I want.
Thanks for any suggestions!
... like '[[]%'
You use [ ]
to surround a special character (or range)
See the section "Using Wildcard Characters As Literals" in SQL Server LIKE
Edit, 24 Nov 2011
Note: You don't need to escape the closing bracket...