Using SQL LIKE
SQL LIKE is used to search string in a column of database table based on pattern matching. LIKE keyword usually uses in WHERE clause to limits the result set based on pattern matching. SQL provides two wildcard characters for use with LIKE. They are '%' (means any string of zero or more characters) and '_' (means a single character). Here is the syntax of using LIKE:
SELECT field_list
FROM table
WHERE field LIKE pattern
Let's take a look at following examples to see how SQL LIKE works.
We use the sample database table employees
name salary
-------- -------
jack 3000.00
mary 2500.00
newcomer 2000.00
anna 2800.00
Tom 2700.00
foo 4700.00
Now if you want to retrieve all employee whose name starts with 'j' character, you can use the query like this:
SELECT name,salary
FROM employees
WHERE name LIKE 'j%'
The database server returns this result set.
name salary
------ -------
jack 3000.00
You can use wildcard in both starting and (or) ending or even anywhere in the pattern string. But remember that LIKE only work with SQL character type. Here is an example of using '_' wildcard.
SELECT name, salary
FROM employees
WHERE name LIKE '_a%'
You've searched for any name start with any character, followed by character 'a' and end with any number of character. So the output result is:
name salary
------ -------
jack 3000.00
mary 2500.00
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