LIKE Condition

The SQL LIKE condition allows you to use wildcards in the SQL WHERE clause of an SQL statement. This allows you to perform pattern matching. The SQL LIKE condition can be used in any valid SQL statement - SQL SELECT statement, SQL INSERT statement, SQL UPDATE statement, or SQL DELETE statement.

The patterns that you can choose from are:

• % allows you to match any string of any length (including zero length)
• _ allows you to match on a single character

SQL LIKE Condition - Using % wildcard example

Let's explain how the % wildcard works in the SQL LIKE condition. We are going to try to find all of the suppliers whose name begins with 'Hew'.

SELECT * FROM suppliers
WHERE supplier_name like 'Hew%';

You can also using the % wildcard multiple times within the same string. For example,

SELECT * FROM suppliers
WHERE supplier_name like '%bob%';

In this SQL LIKE condition example, we are looking for all suppliers whose name contains the characters 'bob'.

You could also use the SQL LIKE condition to find suppliers whose name does not start with 'T'.

For example:

SELECT * FROM suppliers
WHERE supplier_name not like 'T%';

By placing the not keyword in front of the SQL LIKE condition, you are able to retrieve all suppliers whose name does not start with 'T'.

SQL LIKE Condition - Using _ wildcard example

Next, let's explain how the _ wildcard works in the SQL LIKE condition. Remember that the _ is looking for only one character.

For example:

SELECT * FROM suppliers
WHERE supplier_name like 'Sm_th';

This SQL LIKE condition example would return all suppliers whose name is 5 characters long, where the first two characters is 'Sm' and the last two characters is 'th'. For example, it could return suppliers whose name is 'Smith', 'Smyth', 'Smath', 'Smeth', etc.

Here is another example:

SELECT * FROM suppliers
WHERE account_number like '12317_';

You might find that you are looking for an account number, but you only have 5 of the 6 digits. The example above, would retrieve potentially 10 records back (where the missing value could equal anything from 0 to 9). For example, it could return suppliers whose account numbers are:

123170, 123171, 123172, 123173, 123174, 123175, 123176, 123177, 123178, 123179

SQL LIKE Condition - Using Escape Characters example

Next, in Oracle, let's say you wanted to search for a % or a _ character in the SQL LIKE condition. You can do this using an Escape character.

Please note that you can only define an escape character as a single character (length of 1).

For example:

SELECT * FROM suppliers
WHERE supplier_name LIKE '!%' escape '!';

This SQL LIKE condition example identifies the ! character as an escape character. This statement will return all suppliers whose name is %.

Here is another more complicated example using escape characters in the SQL LIKE condition.

SELECT * FROM suppliers
WHERE supplier_name LIKE 'H%!%' escape '!';

This SQL LIKE condition example returns all suppliers whose name starts with H and ends in %. For example, it would return a value such as 'Hello%'.

You can also use the escape character with the _ character in the SQL LIKE condition.

For example:

SELECT * FROM suppliers
WHERE supplier_name LIKE 'H%!_' escape '!';

This SQL LIKE condition example returns all suppliers whose name starts with H and ends in _. For example, it would return a value such as 'Hello_'.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Question: How do you incorporate the Oracle upper function with the SQL LIKE condition? I'm trying to query against a free text field for all records containing the word "test". The problem is that it can be entered in the following ways: TEST, Test, or test.

Answer: To answer this question, let's take a look at an example.

Let's say that we have a suppliers table with a field called supplier_name that contains the values TEST, Test, or test.

If we wanted to find all records containing the word "test", regardless of whether it was stored as TEST, Test, or test, we could run either of the following SQL SELECT statements:

select * from suppliers
where upper(supplier_name) like ('TEST%');

or

select * from suppliers
where upper(supplier_name) like upper('test%')

These SQL SELECT statements use a combination of the Oracle upper function and the SQL LIKE condition to return all of the records where the supplier_name field contains the word "test", regardless of whether it was stored as TEST, Test, or test.

Practice Exercise #1:

Based on the employees table populated with the following data, find all records whose employee_name ends with the letter "h".

CREATE TABLE employees
( employee_number number(10) not null,
  employee_name varchar2(50) not null,
  salary number(6),
  CONSTRAINT employees_pk PRIMARY KEY (employee_number)
);

INSERT INTO employees (employee_number, employee_name, salary)
VALUES (1001, 'John Smith', 62000);

INSERT INTO employees (employee_number, employee_name, salary)
VALUES (1002, 'Jane Anderson', 57500);

INSERT INTO employees (employee_number, employee_name, salary)
VALUES (1003, 'Brad Everest', 71000);

INSERT INTO employees (employee_number, employee_name, salary)
VALUES (1004, 'Jack Horvath', 42000);

Solution:

The following SQL SELECT statement uses the SQL LIKE condition to return the records whose employee_name ends with the letter "h".

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE employee_name LIKE '%h';

It would return the following result set:

EMPLOYEE_NUMBER	EMPLOYEE_NAME	SALARY
1001	John Smith	62000
1004	Jack Horvath	42000

Practice Exercise #2:

Based on the employees table populated with the following data, find all records whose employee_name contains the letter "s".

CREATE TABLE employees
( employee_number number(10) not null,
  employee_name varchar2(50) not null,
  salary number(6),
  CONSTRAINT employees_pk PRIMARY KEY (employee_number)
);

INSERT INTO employees (employee_number, employee_name, salary)
VALUES (1001, 'John Smith', 62000);

INSERT INTO employees (employee_number, employee_name, salary)
VALUES (1002, 'Jane Anderson', 57500);

INSERT INTO employees (employee_number, employee_name, salary)
VALUES (1003, 'Brad Everest', 71000);

INSERT INTO employees (employee_number, employee_name, salary)
VALUES (1004, 'Jack Horvath', 42000);

Solution:

The following SQL SELECT statement would use the SQL LIKE condition to return the records whose employee_name contains the letter "s".

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE employee_name LIKE '%s%';

It would return the following result set:

EMPLOYEE_NUMBER	EMPLOYEE_NAME	SALARY
1002	Jane Anderson	57500
1003	Brad Everest	71000

Practice Exercise #3:

Based on the suppliers table populated with the following data, find all records whose supplier_id is 4 digits and starts with "500".

CREATE TABLE suppliers
( supplier_id varchar2(10) not null,
  supplier_name varchar2(50) not null,
  city varchar2(50),
  CONSTRAINT suppliers_pk PRIMARY KEY (supplier_id)
);

INSERT INTO suppliers(supplier_id, supplier_name, city)
VALUES ('5008', 'Microsoft', 'New York');

INSERT INTO suppliers (supplier_id, supplier_name, city)
VALUES ('5009', 'IBM', 'Chicago');

INSERT INTO suppliers (supplier_id, supplier_name, city)
VALUES ('5010', 'Red Hat', 'Detroit');

INSERT INTO suppliers (supplier_id, supplier_name, city)
VALUES ('5011', 'NVIDIA', 'New York');

Solution:

The following SQL SELECT statement would use the SQL LIKE condition to return the records whose supplier_id is 4 digits and starts with "500".

select *
FROM suppliers
WHERE supplier_id LIKE '500_';

It would return the following result set:

SUPPLIER_ID	SUPPLIER_NAME	CITY
5008	Microsoft	New York
5009	IBM	Chicago