SQL LIKE Operator

The LIKE operator in SQL is used with the WHERE clause to get a result set that matches the given string pattern.

There are two wildcards often used with the LIKE operator,

1. % (percent sign) - represents zero, one, or multiple characters
2.  _ (underscore sign) - represents one, single character 

LIKE Operator Syntax

SELECT columnName,...
FROM tableName
WHERE columnName LIKE 'pattern';

Example of SQL LIKE operator & Wildcards

1. SQL Statement selects all Company with CompanyName that have value "Microsoft"

SELECT * FROM Company
WHERE CompanyName LIKE 'Microsoft';

2. SQL Statement selects all Company with CompanyName that have value "M" at the first position

SELECT * FROM Company
WHERE CompanyName LIKE 'M%';

3. SQL Statement selects all Company with CompanyName that have value "soft" at the end

SELECT * FROM Company
WHERE CompanyName LIKE '%soft';

4. SQL Statement selects all Company with CompanyName that have value "web" at any position

SELECT * FROM Company
WHERE CompanyName LIKE '%web%';

5. SQL Statement selects all Company with CompanyName that have value "o" at second position

SELECT * FROM Company
WHERE CompanyName LIKE '_o%';

6. SQL Statement selects all Company with CompanyName that have value "g" at first position and value "e" as last position

SELECT * FROM Company
WHERE CompanyName LIKE 'g%e';