How to query Unicode characters from SQL Server 2008 - asp.net

Question

With NVARCHAR data type, I store my local language text in a column. I face a problem how to query that value from the database.
ዜናገብርኤልስ is stored value.
I wrote SQL like this
select DivisionName
from t_Et_Divisions
where DivisionName = 'ዜናገብርኤልስ'
select unicode (DivisionName)
from t_Et_Divisions
where DivisionName = 'ዜናገብርኤልስ'
The above didn't work. Does anyone have any ideas how to fix it?
Thanks!

Answer 1

You need to prefix your Unicode string literals with a N:
select DivisionName
from t_Et_Divisions
where DivisionName = N'ዜናገብርኤልስ'
This N prefix tells SQL Server to treat this string literal as a Unicode string and not convert it to a non-Unicode string (as it will if you omit the N prefix).
Update:
I still fail to understand what is not working according to you....
I tried setting up a table with an NVARCHAR column, and if I select, I get back that one, exact row match - as expected:
DECLARE #test TABLE (DivisionName NVARCHAR(100))
INSERT INTO #test (DivisionName)
VALUES (N'ዜናገብርኤልስ'), (N'ዜናገብርኤልስ,ኔትዎርክ,ከስተመር ስርቪስ'), (N'ኔትዎርክ,ከስተመር ስርቪስ')
SELECT *
FROM #test
WHERE DivisionName = N'ዜናገብርኤልስ'
This returns exactly one row - what else are you seeing, or what else are you expecting??
Update #2:
Ah - I see - the columns contains multiple, comma-separated values - which is a horrible design mistake to begin with..... (violates first normal form of database design - don't do it!!)
And then you want to select all rows that contain that search term - but only display the search term itself, not the whole DivisionName column? Seems rather pointless..... try this:
select N'ዜናገብርኤልስ'
from t_Et_Divisions
where DivisionName LIKE N'%ዜናገብርኤልስ%'
The LIKE searches for rows that contain that value, and since you already know what you want to display, just put that value into the SELECT list ....