I have create a table called tblcatalog with colums id(identity,primary key) and contents(varchar(100))

I have then created a full text catalog on that table and populated it.

Then i wrote the following query
"select contents from tblcatalog where contains(contents,'sample data')"
It is fetching 0 records even though u have 5 records with entries "sample data"

Can anyone tell me the solution immediately

bye
shanky

Immediately? Have you tried everything you could think of before asking for help? It'll take me 20 minutes or so to setup FullText Search, and will take you probably much less to experiment with it.

when you say you populated it did you create an initial full population?

Forgive me if this is basic to you. Just trying to be thorough.
In Enterprise Manager, right click on your table. Choose 'Full Text Index Table' (MS Search service must be started for this to appear.) Choose 'Start full population.' Rerun your query. If it works, you must not have really done a full population yet. In that case you may want to set up incremental or full populations using the 'Schedules..' option on the same context menu...
If not, I have no clue what the problem is!