LIKE Clause

SQLite LIKE operator is used to match text values against a pattern using wildcards. If the search expression can be matched to the pattern expression, the LIKE operator will return true, which is 1. There are two wildcards used in conjunction with the LIKE operator −

• The percent sign (%)
• The underscore (_)

The percent sign represents zero, one, or multiple numbers or characters. The underscore represents a single number or character. These symbols can be used in combinations.

Syntax

Following is the basic syntax of % and _.

SELECT FROM table_name WHERE column LIKE 'XXXX%' or SELECT FROM table_name WHERE column LIKE '%XXXX%' or SELECT FROM table_name WHERE column LIKE 'XXXX_' or SELECT FROM table_name WHERE column LIKE '_XXXX' or SELECT FROM table_name WHERE column LIKE '_XXXX_'

You can combine N number of conditions using AND or OR operators. Here, XXXX could be any numeric or string value.

Example

Following table lists a number of examples showing WHERE part having different LIKE clause with ‘%’ and ‘_’ operators.

Sr.No.	Statement & Description
1	WHERE SALARY LIKE ‘200%’Finds any values that start with 200
2	WHERE SALARY LIKE ‘%200%’Finds any values that have 200 in any position
3	WHERE SALARY LIKE ‘_00%’Finds any values that have 00 in the second and third positions
4	WHERE SALARY LIKE ‘2_%_%’Finds any values that start with 2 and are at least 3 characters in length
5	WHERE SALARY LIKE ‘%2’Finds any values that end with 2
6	WHERE SALARY LIKE ‘_2%3’Finds any values that has a 2 in the second position and ends with a 3
7	WHERE SALARY LIKE ‘2___3’Finds any values in a five-digit number that starts with 2 and ends with 3

Let us take a real example, consider COMPANY table with the following records.

ID NAME AGE ADDRESS SALARY ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- 1 Paul 32 California 20000.0 2 Allen 25 Texas 15000.0 3 Teddy 23 Norway 20000.0 4 Mark 25 Rich-Mond 65000.0 5 David 27 Texas 85000.0 6 Kim 22 South-Hall 45000.0 7 James 24 Houston 10000.0

Following is an example, which will display all the records from COMPANY table where AGE starts with 2.

sqlite> SELECT * FROM COMPANY WHERE AGE LIKE '2%';

This will produce the following result.

ID NAME AGE ADDRESS SALARY ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- 2 Allen 25 Texas 15000.0 3 Teddy 23 Norway 20000.0 4 Mark 25 Rich-Mond 65000.0 5 David 27 Texas 85000.0 6 Kim 22 South-Hall 45000.0 7 James 24 Houston 10000.0

Following is an example, which will display all the records from COMPANY table where ADDRESS will have a hyphen (-) inside the text.

sqlite> SELECT * FROM COMPANY WHERE ADDRESS LIKE '%-%';

This will produce the following result.ID NAME AGE ADDRESS SALARY ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- 4 Mark 25 Rich-Mond 65000.0 6 Kim 22 South-Hall 45000.0