SQL - LIKE Clause

The SQL LIKE clause is used in a SQL WHERE clause to search for a specified pattern in a specified column. There are two wildcards which are often used in conjunction with the LIKE operator.

• % : represents zero, one or multiple characters.
• _ : represents one character.

Note: In MS Access, asterisk (*) is used instead of percentage sign (%) and a question mark (?) is used instead of (_).

Syntax

The syntax for using LIKE Clause is given below:

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

The table below describes patterns which is used with LIKE operator and uses (%) and (_).

Example:

Consider a database containing a table called Employee with the following records:

• To fetch all records from Employee table where Salary starts with 3 and ends with 0, the SQL query is:

  SELECT * FROM Employee
  WHERE Salary LIKE '3%0';
  

  
  

  This will produce the result as shown below:

  EmpID	Name	City	Age	Salary
  1	John	London	25	3000
  4	Kim	Amsterdam	30	3100
  5	Ramesh	New Delhi	28	3000

  
  

  In My Access, the same can be achieved using below query:

  /* My Access SQL code */
  SELECT * FROM Employee
  WHERE Salary LIKE '3*0';
  

• Similarly, to fetch all records from Employee table where Name of the employee starts with 'Jo', the SQL query is:

  SELECT * FROM Employee
  WHERE Name LIKE 'Jo%';
  

  
  

  This will produce the result as shown below:

  EmpID	Name	City	Age	Salary
  1	John	London	25	3000
  3	Jo	Paris	27	2800

  
  

  In My Access, the query would be:

  /* My Access SQL code */
  SELECT * FROM Employee
  WHERE Name LIKE 'Jo*';