SQL Wildcard Characters With Query Examples

SQL Wildcard: Main Tips

• Wildcards have the same purpose as Regular Expressions.
• A wildcard character is an alternative character replacing certain other character(s) in a string.
• SQL wildcards are useful when you want to perform a faster search for data in a database.
• MS Access uses a question mark (?) instead of an underscore (_).
• [charlist], [^charlist] and [!charlist] can be used in SQL Server and MS Access.
• You can combine several wildcards.

Wildcard Characters

%

An alternate for more than zero characters.

This example selects all developers with a City starting with 'pa'.

SELECT * FROM Developers
WHERE City LIKE 'pa%';

This example selects all developers with a City containing the pattern 'am'.

SELECT * FROM Developers
WHERE City LIKE '%am%';

_

An alternate for a single character.
This example selects all developers with a City starting with any character, followed by 'ondon'.

SELECT * FROM Developers
WHERE City LIKE '_ondon';

This example selects all developers with a City starting with 'D', followed by any character, followed by 'l', followed by any character, followed by 'i'.

SELECT * FROM Developers
WHERE City LIKE 'D_l_i';

[charlist]

Specifies ranges of characters and sets to match.
This example selects all developers with a City starting with 'n', 'l', or 'm'.

SELECT * FROM Developers
WHERE City LIKE '[nlm]%';

This example selects all developers with a City starting with 'a', 'b', 'c' or 'd'.

SELECT * FROM Developers
WHERE City LIKE '[a-d]%';

[^charlist] and [!charlist]

Specifies ranges of characters and sets NOT to match.
This example selects all developers with a City NOT starting with 'p', 'd', or 'm'.

SELECT * FROM Developers
WHERE City LIKE '[!pdm]%';

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Using LIKE Operators with _ and % Wildcards

WHERE DeveloperName LIKE 's%'
Searches for a value where 's' is the first symbol.

WHERE DeveloperName LIKE '%s'
Searches for a value where 's' is the last symbol.

WHERE DeveloperName LIKE '%on%'
Searches for a value which has 'on' in it.

WHERE DeveloperName LIKE '_n%'
Searches for a value where 'n' is the second symbol

WHERE DeveloperName LIKE 'b_%_%'
Searches for a value where 'b' is the first character and the string is at least 3 characters long.

WHERE DeveloperName LIKE 't%s'
Searches for a value where 't' is the first symbol and 's' is the last symbol.

SQL Wildcard: Summary

• Wildcard characters work the same as Regular Expressions.
• You can use several wildcards in a single string.
• Some databases may use a different SQL wildcard for the same function.