LIKE — Pattern Matching

The LIKE keyword allows you to filter rows based on a pattern.
It is used with text values (strings) and supports wildcard characters.

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Syntax

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

Wildcards:

Wildcard	Meaning
%	Matches zero or more characters
_	Matches exactly one character

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Example 1: Names starting with 'A'

SELECT name FROM employees
WHERE name LIKE 'A%';

This returns all employees whose name starts with 'A'.

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Example 2: Names ending with 'a'

SELECT name FROM employees
WHERE name LIKE '%a';

This returns all employees whose name ends with 'a'.

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Example 3: Names with 4 letters only

SELECT name FROM employees
WHERE name LIKE '____';

This returns names that are exactly 4 characters long.

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Example 4: Names containing 'ar'

SELECT name FROM employees
WHERE name LIKE '%ar%';

This returns all employees whose name contains 'ar' anywhere.

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Example 5: Names where second letter is 'a'

SELECT name FROM employees
WHERE name LIKE '_a%';

This returns all employees whose second letter is 'a'.

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Tip

• LIKE is case-insensitive in some databases (like MySQL) but case-sensitive in others (like PostgreSQL unless using ILIKE).
• You can also combine LIKE with NOT to exclude patterns.

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