Question using patindex in SQL server

[sooks]

Alright, I am trying to write a query that will select a column.. then search through the column and return me the fields with no underscores in them.

i.e we have fields that are like ABCD and ABCD_1. I want to basically return all of them up to the underscore.

so i am trying to use a substring combined with patindex. Here is my statement for patindex. patindex('%_%', short_name)

however, i cannot get patindex to ignore the fact that _ is a wildcard and treat it as character. Ive tried ('%[_]%', short_name) and ive tried ('%!_%', short_name) escape '!' and i just keep getting errors... If someone could help me out, that would be most appreciated. thank you.

[nosepicker]

(see my reply in MS SQL2000 forum)