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What is the meaning of % and _ in the LIKE statement in MYSQL?

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What is the meaning of % and _ in the LIKE statement in MYSQL?
posted Mar 27, 2017 by Deepa

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2 Answers

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Best answer

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

Note: MS Access uses a question mark (?) instead of the underscore (_).

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:

LIKE Operator Description
WHERE CustomerName LIKE 'a%' Finds any values that starts with "a"
WHERE CustomerName LIKE '%a' Finds any values that ends with "a"
WHERE CustomerName LIKE '%or%' Finds any values that have "or" in any position
WHERE CustomerName LIKE '_r%' Finds any values that have "r" in the second position
WHERE CustomerName LIKE 'a_%_%' Finds any values that starts with "a" and are at least 3 characters in length
WHERE ContactName LIKE 'a%o' Finds any values that starts with "a" and ends with "o"

answer Mar 27, 2017 by Manikandan J
0 votes

Hello,

The LIKE operator is used in where clause to find specific pattern in column.

there are tow wildcard used with LIKE operator is following :
% - the percentage sign represent zero,one or multiple characters.
_ - the underscore sign represent a single characters.

Syntax:

SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
WHERE columnN LIKE pattern;
answer Oct 14, 2019 by Siddhi Patel
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