>I am not sure the fastest way to do this kind of search in sql server, maybe a regular expression?
>
>Let's say I have a 6 character varchar field. In that field are license plate nunbers, such as "L1 234", "QA3333", etc. Now the user enters via a telephone 6 numbers. (I cannot control the IVR portion and must deal with the 6 numbers.) Now given the phone pad, if a user enters "235466" that could really mean:
>235466
>A35466
>B35466
>C35466
>2A5466
>2B5466
>
>etc for millions of combinations. I need to pull the recordfs that match any of those possibilities.
>
>Comments?


What do you get when you search using

select * from Licenses where Plate like '[2a-c]%'

? If you get all plates where the value is starting with 2 or letters A, B, C, then this is your answer. Create your pattern this way and you should be good.