Is it possible to use LIKE and IN for a WHERE statment?

Question

I have a list of place names and would like to match them to records in a sql database the problem is the properties have reference numbers after there name. eg. \'Ballymena

Answer 1

you could use OR

WHERE 
  dbo.[Places].[Name] LIKE 'Ballymena%' 
  OR dbo.[Places].[Name] LIKE 'Banger%'

or split the string at the space, if the places.name is always in the same format.

WHERE SUBSTRING(dbo.[Places].[Name], 1, CHARINDEX(dbo.[Places].[Name], ' ')) 
  IN ('Ballymena', 'Banger')

This might decrease performance, because the database may be able to use indexes with like (if the wildcard is at the end you have even a better chance) but most probably not when using substring.