SQL Wildcards

SQL Wildcard Characters

A wildcard character is used to substitute any other character(s) in a string.

Wildcard characters are used with 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

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

Demo Database

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table :

Using the % Wildcard

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

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE 'ber%';

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City containing the pattern "es":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE '%es%';

Using the _ Wildcard

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City starting with any character, followed by "erlin":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE '_erlin';

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City starting with "L", followed by any character, followed by "n", followed by any character, followed by "on":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE 'L_n_on';

Using the [charlist] Wildcard

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City starting with "b", "s", or "p":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE '[bsp]%';

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City starting with "a", "b", or "c":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE '[a-c]%';

Using the [!charlist] Wildcard

The two following SQL statements select all customers with a City NOT starting with "b", "s", or "p":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE '[!bsp]%';

Or:

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City NOT LIKE '[bsp]%';