SQL LIKE Keyword

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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:

  • % - Represents zero, one, or multiple characters
  • _ - Represents a single character (MS Access uses a question mark (?) instead)

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

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName LIKE 'a%';
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The following SQL selects all customers with a CustomerName ending with "a":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName LIKE '%a';
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The following SQL selects all customers with a CustomerName that have "or" in any position:

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName LIKE '%or%';
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The following SQL statement selects all customers with a CustomerName that starts with "a" and are at least 3 characters in length:

Example

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