Linq to SQL: Partial matching strings using contains on an array of strings

Question

Here is my code:

string[] customerNames = searchModel.CustomerName.Split(',');
 query = query.Where(d => customerNames.Contains(d.CustomerName, comparer) || customerNames.Contains(d.Company1.CompanyName, comparer));

Which works if you are just looking for exact matches. However I'd like to partial match, ie: if customerNames contains an element 'ell', it would select d if d.CustomerName was 'Hello' since 'ell' is in 'Hello'

I tried overriding the EqualityComparer, but I believe it is trying to use the GetHashCode function rather than the Equals in the Comparer, which I'm not sure how to implement.

How should I go about this?

Answer 1

string[] customerNames = searchModel.CustomerName.Split(',');
query = query.Where(d => customerNames.Any(c => c.Contains(d.CustomerName)) || customerNames.Any(c => c.Contains(d.Company1.CompanyName)));

But you should be aware, that it may get really slow when customerNames has a lot of items.