SQL: Search for a keyword in several columns of a table I want to perform a search in several columns of a table. I use the following query:

select *
from Tabela t
inner join "TabelaPai" tp on tp."ID" = t."RefTabelaPai" and tp."RefProject" = 'projectid'
where not t."Deleted" 
 and (t.Col1 ~ '.*__param1__.*' or t.Col2 ~ '.*__param1__.*' or t.Col3 ~ '.*__param1__.*'
   or t.Col4 ~ '.*__param1__.*' or t.Col5 ~ '.*__param1__.*' or t.Col6 ~ '.*__param1__.*' 
   or t.Col7 ~ '.*__param1__.*' or t.Col8 ~ '.*__param1__.*' or t.Col9 ~ '.*__param1__.*');


This will search for the keyword __param1__ in any of the columns and it's working fine. 

But I don't like the way the query looks like. Any suggestion on how to refactor the query so it can look 'prettier' (without those ~ '.*__param1__.*' repetitions, for example)?

Edit: A little of context about the query:

What leads to this usage is that I can parameterize the data in the table. For example, I have a column in a table where scripts are saved. My application allows the users to parametrize the script using something like __param1__. If the user wants to rename the parameter I'll have to search for the usage of the parameter in every column that is parameterizable, and this is the query that finds where the parameter is used.
Something "prettier"? And so many repetitions call for generalization?  

SELECT *
FROM   tabela AS t
JOIN   "TabelaPai" tp ON tp."ID" = t."RefTabelaPai"
WHERE  NOT t."Deleted" 
AND    tp."RefProject" = 'projectid'
AND    t::text LIKE E'%\\_\\_param1\\_\\_%';

Major points:


You can reference the composite type of any relation in the SELECT list. I quote the manual:


  Whenever you create a table, a composite type is also automatically
  created, with the same name as the table, to represent the table's row type.


You can cast the whole row (the composite type) to its text representation in one fell swoop, which is a very convenient syntactical shorthand. The resulting filter in my query is guaranteed to find every occurrence in the whole row.
The LIKE operator is generally faster than regular expression pattern matching (~). Regular expressions are far more powerful, but whenever LIKE can do the job use it. Its syntax is simpler, too.
Underscores (_) have a special meaning for the LIKE operator, so you need to escape literal _. Default escape character is \, which also has a special meaning in escape string constants, so you have to double them when you use the E'' prefix: E'\\_'.

As of version 9.1, the setting standard_conforming_strings is on by default. With this setting \ has no special meaning in plain string literals (without the E prefix) and you don't need to double them: '\_'.
There is a minor flaw / corner case: If the separator in text representation (, by default, and some values are enclosed in double quotes "), can be part of the search pattern, there can be false positives.


Minor cleanup / simplification:


JOIN is shorthand for INNER JOIN.
It is cleaner to write AND tp."RefProject" = 'projectid' as WHERE clause, as it has no connection to tabela. Else you could put NOT t."Deleted" into the JOIN condition as well. Either way, you get the same result here.
No point for mixed case in Tabela (without double quotes). By default (and without double-quotes), all identifiers are folded to lower case automatically. My standing advice is to use legal. lower case identifiers exclusively in PostgreSQL and avoid avoid double-quoting and possible confusion.