SQL Programming
  • Introduction to SQL
  • Data Definition Language
    • DATA TYPES
    • CREATE DATABASE
    • DROP DATABASE
    • CREATE TABLE Statement
    • CONSTRAINTS
      • SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint
      • SQL NOT NULL Constraint
      • SQL UNIQUE Constraint
      • SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint
      • SQL DEFAULT Constraint
      • SQL CHECK Constraint
    • DROP & TRUNCATE TABLE Statement
    • ALTER TABLE Statement
    • AUTO INCREMENT Field
    • SQL SELECT INTO Statement
    • CREATE INDEX
    • DDL Practice Problems
  • Data Manipulation Language
    • INSERT INTO Statement
    • INSERT INTO SELECT Statement
    • DELETE Statement
    • UPDATE Statement
    • DML Practice Problems
  • SQL NULL Values
  • SQL Comments
  • Data Query Language
    • SQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement
    • SQL WHERE Clause
      • SQL And, Or, Not (Logical Operators)
      • SQL Wildcards
      • SQL LIKE Operator
      • SQL IN Operator
      • SQL BETWEEN Operator
      • SQL WHERE Exercises
    • SQL TOP CLAUSE
    • SQL Order By
    • SQL Server Scalar Functions (Non-aggregate)
      • SQL MIN() and MAX()
      • SQL COUNT(), AVG() and SUM() Functions
      • Functions Problems
    • SQL ISNULL Functions
    • SQL Aliases
    • SQL CASE Statement
    • SQL SET Operator
    • SQL GROUP BY Statement
    • SQL HAVING Clause
    • Analytical Function
    • SQL Joins
      • SQL INNER JOIN Keyword
      • SQL LEFT JOIN Keyword
      • SQL RIGHT JOIN Keyword
      • SQL FULL OUTER JOIN Keyword
      • SQL Self JOIN
      • SQL CROSS JOIN
    • SQL Subqueries
    • SQL EXISTS Operator
    • SQL ANY and ALL Operators
  • CREATE VIEWS
  • Common Table Expressions (CTE)
  • Data Control Language
  • SQL Stored Procedures for SQL Server
  • Practice Papers
  • SQL PROJECT
Powered by GitBook
On this page

Was this helpful?

  1. Data Query Language
  2. SQL WHERE Clause

SQL LIKE Operator

PreviousSQL WildcardsNextSQL IN Operator

Last updated 6 years ago

Was this helpful?

The SQL LIKE Operator

The LIKE operator is used in a WHERE clause to search for a specified pattern in a column.

There are two wildcards used in conjunction with the LIKE operator:

  • % - The percent sign represents zero, one, or multiple characters

  • _ - The underscore represents a single character

The percent sign and the underscore can also be used in combinations!

LIKE Syntax

SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
WHERE columnN LIKE pattern;

Tip: You can also combine any number of conditions using AND or OR operators.

Here are some examples showing different LIKE operators with '%' and '_' wildcards:

Demo Database

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table in the Northwind sample database:

SQL LIKE Examples

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a CustomerName starting with "a":

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName LIKE 'a%';

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a CustomerName ending with "a":

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName LIKE '%a'

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a CustomerName that have "or" in any position

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName LIKE '%or%';

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a CustomerName that have "r" in the second position:

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName LIKE '_r%';

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a CustomerName that starts with "a" and are at least 3 characters in length:

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName LIKE 'a_%_%';

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a ContactName that starts with "a" and ends with "o":

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE ContactName LIKE 'a%o';

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a CustomerName that does NOT start with "a":

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName NOT LIKE 'a%';