I finally (albeit reluctantly) made the switch from a personal geodatabase (pGDB) to a file geodatabse (fGDB) not too long ago. The main reason it took so long to switch has to do with how Select by Attributes deals with string functions.
For example, I used to be able to easily select all records where the first character of a particular field starts with "A".
left([Some_Field],1 = "A")
This works without a hitch when querying against a pGDB. However, try to do the same thing against a fGDB.
left("Some_Field",1 = "A")
This returns the following error:
There was a problem selecting
An invalid SQL statement was used.
I realize I can use the field calculator to calculate a new field equal to the first character of some other field. But who wants to do that every time?
Is there a way to use string functions inside Select By Attributes?
Best Answer
Your queries should follow the SQL format discussed here. For what you're looking for, you can use something like this:
The % is a wild card, so this would return records that have values in "Some_Field" that start with 'A'.