Pattern Matching with LIKE

LIKE lets you search for text that partially matches a pattern, using two wildcards.

The wildcards

Wildcard	Meaning
%	any number of characters (including zero)
_	exactly one character

Examples

-- Names starting with 'A'
SELECT first_name FROM employees WHERE first_name LIKE 'A%';

-- Names ending in 'a'
SELECT first_name FROM employees WHERE first_name LIKE '%a';

-- Names containing 'ha' anywhere
SELECT first_name FROM employees WHERE first_name LIKE '%ha%';

-- Exactly 3 letters
SELECT first_name FROM employees WHERE first_name LIKE '___';

Case sensitivity

This is one of the few places engines genuinely differ: LIKE is case-insensitive in SQLite and SQL Server by default, but case-sensitive in PostgreSQL. PostgreSQL provides ILIKE for a case-insensitive match:

-- PostgreSQL only
SELECT * FROM customers WHERE city ILIKE 'lahore';

Negation

SELECT first_name FROM employees WHERE first_name NOT LIKE 'A%';

Escaping literal % or _

If you need to search for an actual percent sign or underscore, escape it (syntax varies slightly by engine, but the common approach is):

SELECT * FROM products WHERE product_name LIKE '%50\%%' ESCAPE '\\';

Open the Code Playground, pick any SQL engine (SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, or SQL Server), and paste these queries in directly — the practice database above is already loaded for you, every time.

-- A ready-to-query practice database is loaded automatically before every run —
-- no CREATE TABLE needed. Available tables:
--   departments  (id, name, location)
--   employees    (id, first_name, last_name, email, department_id, job_title, salary, hire_date, manager_id)
--   customers    (id, customer_name, city, country, signup_date)
--   products     (id, product_name, category, price, stock_quantity)
--   orders       (id, customer_id, employee_id, order_date, status)
--   order_items  (id, order_id, product_id, quantity, unit_price)

SELECT * FROM employees WHERE department_id = 1;