Does this help?
SELECT * from mvr WHERE plate_no LIKE '%C234%'
======
>High all!
>
>I am trying to search through a 1 million record table for a partial license plate number. Someone may know 3 letters of the plate number and those three letters could be anywhere in the field. I am experimenting with the code below but it is too slow. I have used all of the AT() commands and Occurs().
>The table is indexed on ALLTRIM(plate_no). Pretty much the same results. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
>
>clear
>IF !USED('mvr')
>USE D:\wconnect\data\mvr\mvr.dbf IN 0 SHARED
>ENDIF
>SELECT mvr
>locate
>SCAN
>lcRec = STR(RECNO())
>WAIT lcRec WINDOW nowait
>lcTag = ALLTRIM(plate_no)
>lcString = "C234"
>DO case
>CASE atcc(lcString,lcTag)>0
>?lcTag
>ENDCASE
>ENDSCAN