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Setting up a Full-Text Index in SQL Server

Steve Jones walks us through setup for a new full-text index in SQL Server:

A full text index allows you to search a little more freely than standard T-SQL with a LIKE or wildcards. It’s useful for going through large amounts of text, mainly hundreds or thousands of words.

To get started, you need to know a few things. First, this system in modern SQL Server (2008+) is set up on all instances. You don’t enabled FTS like you would for In-Memory OLTP tables or FILESTREAM.

Next, you need a catalog for the FTS indexes, which is a logical container.

Next, a table with data.

Finally, you create the index. In this post, I’ll look at SSMS and the GUI. In another one, I’ll look at the T-SQL itself.

With all that in mind, click through to read Steve’s post and set up your own full-text search process.