# ShapeFileFeatureLayer.QueryTools.ExecuteQuery() **URL:** \ **Category:** WinForms\ **Created:** [April 2, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://community.thinkgeo.com/t/shapefilefeaturelayer-querytools-executequery/325 "2009-04-02T13:29:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nelson](https://community.thinkgeo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/dec6dc/32.png) [@Nelson](https://community.thinkgeo.com/u/Nelson)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://community.thinkgeo.com/t/shapefilefeaturelayer-querytools-executequery/325/1 "2009-04-02T13:29:28Z")
I am having an issue trying to filter by a field that has a trailing underscore. This is fairly common in our scenario. The error generated is: SELECT \* FROM LOTS WHERE LOTS\_ = '24' OleDbException was unhandled: Syntax error in query expression '[LOTS]\_='1''. In the above scenario, LOTS\_ is the name of the field. I tried to "escape" the underscore by using two \_'s but this did not resolve the issue. What is recommended to work around? I also tried the following query which did not error but did not return any results either. Other columns work as expected.   SELECT \* FROM LOTS WHERE "LOTS\_" = '24' ---
**Author:** ![Nelson](https://community.thinkgeo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/dec6dc/32.png) [@Nelson](https://community.thinkgeo.com/u/Nelson)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://community.thinkgeo.com/t/shapefilefeaturelayer-querytools-executequery/325/2 "2009-04-02T13:54:45Z")
This error is actually occurding no matter where the underscore is it seems… ---
**Author:** ![Ben](https://community.thinkgeo.com/user_avatar/community.thinkgeo.com/ben/32/25720_2.png) [@Ben](https://community.thinkgeo.com/u/Ben)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 5:36am UTC](https://community.thinkgeo.com/t/shapefilefeaturelayer-querytools-executequery/325/3 "2009-04-03T05:36:50Z")
Can you have a quick try on this?      SELECT \* FROM LOTS WHERE [LOTS\_] = ‘24’ ---
**Author:** ![Nelson](https://community.thinkgeo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/dec6dc/32.png) [@Nelson](https://community.thinkgeo.com/u/Nelson)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 6:21am UTC](https://community.thinkgeo.com/t/shapefilefeaturelayer-querytools-executequery/325/4 "2009-04-03T06:21:03Z")
I tried the above SQL and was given the previous result encapsulated with brackets:   Syntax error in query expression '[[LOTS]\_] = '2''.   Also, I can run a similar query by using Odbc as a connection method directly to a dbf which I imagine is something similar to what you do but with Ole.  That query will return successful though. ---
**Author:** ![Ben](https://community.thinkgeo.com/user_avatar/community.thinkgeo.com/ben/32/25720_2.png) [@Ben](https://community.thinkgeo.com/u/Ben)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://community.thinkgeo.com/t/shapefilefeaturelayer-querytools-executequery/325/5 "2009-04-07T20:33:23Z")
Nelson,      I recreated this problem and that’s a bug. We will work on it and I think it will be corrected in the upcoming version. Thanks for pointing it out and sorry for the inconvenience now.      Thanks,      Ben ---
**Author:** ![Nelson](https://community.thinkgeo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/dec6dc/32.png) [@Nelson](https://community.thinkgeo.com/u/Nelson)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 7:47am UTC](https://community.thinkgeo.com/t/shapefilefeaturelayer-querytools-executequery/325/6 "2009-04-09T07:47:16Z")
No problem, Ben. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Ben](https://community.thinkgeo.com/user_avatar/community.thinkgeo.com/ben/32/25720_2.png) [@Ben](https://community.thinkgeo.com/u/Ben)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 10:13pm UTC](https://community.thinkgeo.com/t/shapefilefeaturelayer-querytools-executequery/325/7 "2009-04-09T22:13:13Z")
Just let you know we have solved this problem and it will be corrected in the next version, Nelson.      Ben.