SQL Server allows applications and users to execute full- text search queries against character based data in SQL Server tables. Full-text search is applicable in wide-range of business scenarios. You use full-text search to create queries that search for a word or phrase in a column. You can use full-text search to search a one or more columns for a word or phrase, or words in close proximity to each other, or multiple inflections and tenses of a word (for example: work, works, working).

Full-text search supports a user-friendly interface for data search. Full-text search stores information about words and the row in which the word is found in a full-text search index. A full-text index is a special type of token-based functional index that is built and maintained by the Full-Text Engine for SQL Server. The process of creating full-text index differs from other types of indexes. Instead of the construction of the B-tree structure based on a value stored in a particular row, a full-text index builds an inverted, staked, compressed index structure based on individual tokens from the text being indexed. You can group multiple full-indexes in a single full-text search catalog.

Checkout the part-1 of this two part article series here, in which I discussed about full-text indexing feature, how to configure an SQL Server instance to support full-text search, and how to create full-text index using SQL Server Management Studio.

This article is published on SSWUG.org.