Sql Like

SQL like

Created By: chatGPT

The LIKE operator in SQL is used to search for a specified pattern in a column. It is often used in a WHERE clause to filter records based on a specific pattern. The two wildcard characters commonly used with LIKE are % which represents zero or more characters, and _ which represents a single character.

SELECT * FROM Employees
WHERE FirstName LIKE 'A%';

-- This query retrieves all records from the Employees table where the FirstName starts with 'A'.

You can also use LIKE for more specific searches. For example, if you want to find names that start with 'A' and have 'n' as the second character, you can use the underscore wildcard.

SELECT * FROM Employees
WHERE FirstName LIKE 'A_n%';

-- This will return names like 'Ann', 'Amy', etc.

Sometimes, you may need to search for patterns in the middle of strings or at the end. This is easily handled by placing the wildcard % in different positions. For instance, to find all records where the FirstName contains 'an', regardless of its position, you can use the following query.

SELECT * FROM Employees
WHERE FirstName LIKE '%an%';

-- This will retrieve names like 'Amanda', 'Nathan', etc.

When using the LIKE operator, you also need to be aware of case sensitivity. In many SQL implementations, LIKE is case-insensitive by default. However, if you are using a case-sensitive collation, you might need to adjust your query accordingly.

SELECT * FROM Employees
WHERE FirstName COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CS_AS LIKE 'A%';

-- This query is case-sensitive and will only return names starting with 'A'.