
Wildcard characters are used to substitute for one or more characters in a pattern string: In addition to examining the use of SQL LIKE and NOT LIKE, we will look at two wildcard characters: percent ( %) and underscore ( _). In comparison, LIKE compares character by character through the use of wildcards, which will be discussed in detail in this article. When comparing strings, the equals operator compares whole strings. So, what is the difference between using LIKE and equals? Equals (=) is a comparison operator that operates on numbers and strings. For simple cases like this, we could have also written: This is a simple use case for the LIKE operator. Let’s use the LIKE operator to extract the information for people with the last name “Peterson”.Įxecuting this SQL query would yield the following result set: FirstName Imagine we have a table called person_info containing information about people’s first name, last name, and age. Let’s apply this syntax to a practical example. Let’s examine how we can use the LIKE operator to filter the data returned, thereby retrieving only the desired records. If you want to further advance your SQL skills in this area, try out our interactive course SQL Practice Set, where you will practice SQL JOINs, aggregations with GROUP BY, and other advanced topics in 88 hands-on practical exercises.

Becoming proficient in using the LIKE operator will allow you to parse through large databases with ease, and retrieve exactly the data you need.

#Sql not ilike update#
The LIKE operator is often used in the WHERE clause of SELECT, DELETE, and UPDATE statements to filter data based on patterns. A simple example of this is when you try to find if a name column contains any four-letter name starting with J (such as “John”). The SQL LIKE is a logical operator that checks whether or not a string contains a specified pattern. Gaining an understanding of these operators will allow you to write better queries and demonstrate to potential employers that you have the skills required to filter through expansive data sets. They are part of standard SQL and work across all database types, making it essential knowledge for all SQL users. The SQL LIKE and NOT LIKE operators are used to find matches between a string and a given pattern.
