Why is the SQL Wildcard (LIKE) Operator in the query?
Ask by Ashutosh Patel
Updated 18 Jul 2024
SQL LIKE Operator
The SQL LIKE function, with its wildcards, is used to match patterns in queries. Allows you to search for values that match a specific pattern in a column. This is useful when you want to see a partial similarity between data or records in a particular sample.
Wildcards used are ‘LIKE’
‘
%’- Represents zero or more characters. For example, LIKE 'A%' matches any value starting with 'A'.‘
%%’- Represents zero or more characters. e.g. LIKE ‘%A%’ matches all values that contain ‘A’‘_’- Represents a single character. For example, LIKE 'A_ _' matches any three-character value beginning with 'A'.‘
[]’- Represents any single character within the brackets.‘
^’- Represents any character not within the brackets.Example-
This query retrieves all the rows from the
Peopletable that contains ‘A’ in the columnFirstNameAlso, Read: What are SQL Clauses and Operators?