Linq to Entities (EF 4.1): How to do a SQL LIKE with a wildcard in the middle ( '%term%term%')?

Question

I want to search for this:

Post Cereal

and get this:

Post Honey Nut Cereal

where the wild cards would be

Answer 1

I believe you could use SqlFunctions.PatIndex:

dt.Table.Where(p => SqlFunctions.PatIndex(term, p.fieldname) > 0);

SqlFunctions.PatIndex behaves the same as the SQL LIKE operator. It supports all standard wildcard characters including:

• % Any string of zero or more characters.
• _ (underscore) Any single character.
• [ ] Any single character within the specified range ([a-f]) or set ([abcdef]).
• [^] Any single character not within the specified range ([^a-f]) or set ([^abcdef]).

SqlFunctions.PatIndex is often available when the SqlMethods.Like is not available (including within MVC controllers)