SQL LIKE Keyword

LIKE

The LIKE command is used in a WHERE clause to search for a specified pattern in a column.

You can use two wildcards with LIKE:

The following SQL selects all customers with a CustomerName starting with "a":

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName LIKE 'a%';

The following SQL selects all customers with a CustomerName ending with "a":

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName LIKE '%a';

The following SQL selects all customers with a CustomerName that have "or" in any position:

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName LIKE '%or%';

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a CustomerName that starts with "a" and are at least 3 characters in length:

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName LIKE 'a__%';