Like Operator in Entity Framework?

I don't know anything about EF really, but in LINQ to SQL you usually express a LIKE clause using String.Contains:

where entity.Name.Contains("xyz")

translates to

WHERE Name LIKE '%xyz%'

(Use StartsWith and EndsWith for other behaviour.)

I'm not entirely sure whether that's helpful, because I don't understand what you mean when you say you're trying to implement LIKE. If I've misunderstood completely, let me know and I'll delete this answer :)


There is LIKE operator is added in Entity Framework Core 2.0:

var query = from e in _context.Employees
                    where EF.Functions.Like(e.Title, "%developer%")
                    select e;

Comparing to ... where e.Title.Contains("developer") ... it is really translated to SQL LIKE rather than CHARINDEX we see for Contains method.


This is an old post now, but for anyone looking for the answer, this link should help. Go to this answer if you are already using EF 6.2.x. To this answer if you're using EF Core 2.x

Short version:

SqlFunctions.PatIndex method - returns the starting position of the first occurrence of a pattern in a specified expression, or zeros if the pattern is not found, on all valid text and character data types

Namespace: System.Data.Objects.SqlClient Assembly: System.Data.Entity (in System.Data.Entity.dll)

A bit of an explanation also appears in this forum thread.