SQL — Like

Basic LIKE

-- Starts with
SELECT * FROM users WHERE name LIKE 'A%';

-- Ends with
SELECT * FROM users WHERE name LIKE '%son';

-- Contains
SELECT * FROM users WHERE name LIKE '%li%';

Wildcards

-- % matches any string
SELECT * FROM users WHERE email LIKE '%@gmail.com';

-- _ matches single character
SELECT * FROM users WHERE phone LIKE '___-___-____';

NOT LIKE

SELECT * FROM users WHERE name NOT LIKE 'A%';

Case-insensitive

-- MySQL
SELECT * FROM users WHERE name LIKE '%alice%';

-- PostgreSQL
SELECT * FROM users WHERE name ILIKE '%alice%';

ESCAPE

-- Find 10% discount
SELECT * FROM products WHERE description LIKE '%10!%%' ESCAPE '!';

Mini Practice

Write SQL code that:

1. Uses LIKE with % wildcard
2. Uses LIKE with _ wildcard
3. Uses NOT LIKE
4. Uses ESCAPE for special characters

Up Next

In the next lesson, you'll learn about Between — range filtering.