Using a wildcard in cfqueryparam - Coldfusion - sql

Question

Having a bit of trouble inserting a LIKE and using a wildcard within my parameter in my query using coldfusion. Here is what currently works:
<cfquery name="sample" datasource="database"><!---Take the query here--->
SELECT * <!---select all--->
FROM table <!---from the table "table"
WHERE
<cfloop from="1" to="#listLen(selectList1)#" index="i">
#ListGetAt(selectList1, i)# = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar" value="#ListGetAt(selectList2,i)#" /> <!---
search column name = query parameter
using the same index in both lists
(selectList1) (selectList2) --->
<cfif i neq listLen(selectList1)>AND</cfif> <!---append an "AND" if we are on any but
the very last element of the list (in that
case we don't need an "AND"--->
</cfloop>
</cfquery>
My goal is to get the code somewhere where I can type in a parameter like so (but it is not working currently - Error reads cannot execute query)
<cfquery name="sample" datasource="database"><!---Take the query here--->
SELECT * <!---select all--->
FROM table <!---from the table "table"
WHERE
<cfloop from="1" to="#listLen(selectList1)#" index="i">
#ListGetAt(selectList1, i)# LIKE <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar" value="%#ListGetAt(selectList2,i)#%" /> <!---
search column name = query parameter
using the same index in both lists
(selectList1) (selectList2) --->
<cfif i neq listLen(selectList1)>AND</cfif> <!---append an "AND" if we are on any but
the very last element of the list (in that
case we don't need an "AND"--->
</cfloop>
</cfquery>

Answer 1

Your syntax looks fine. I use the same kind of logic in some of my code running against Microsoft SQL Server.
Try this to debug your code and see the SQL that is being generated.
<!--- Comment out your query tag to debug <cfquery name="sample" datasource="database"> --->
<cfoutput> <!--- add a cfoutput tag to "see" your generated code --->
SELECT *
FROM table
WHERE
<cfloop from="1" to="#listLen(selectList1)#" index="i">
#ListGetAt(selectList1, i)# LIKE <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar" value="%#ListGetAt(selectList2,i)#%" />
<cfif i neq listLen(selectList1)>AND</cfif>
</cfloop>
</cfoutput> <!--- add a cfoutput tag to "see" your generated code --->
<!--- Comment out your query tag to debug </cfquery> --->
This will most likely break the rest of your code that is dependent on the query. I usually just stick a <cfabort> tag after the closing </cfoutput> tag to stop processing and just show me the SQL.
The purpose of this is to output the generated SQL code to your browser. Look it over and see if you can spot the error. You could also copy and paste the generated SQL into your query tool (query analyzer) and test it that way.