Text searching

[TimSki]

Hi,

I'm running sql server 2008. I have a varchar(2000) col and need to do fast fuzzy text searches on it. Can anyone advise on the best way to do this please.

Thanks

[CJackson]

That probably depends on how fuzzy these searches need to be. YOu could create a fulltext index on the column, which lets you use operators like FREETEXT, CONTAINS, etc...that has limited technology like being able to search for synonyms of the word in question, ignore common stopwords, and search for one word near another word.

For something more advanced like edit-distance metrics, check out SimMetrics...it takes a while to set up, but is a great package.