SQL Condition - LIKE

LIKE is used in SQL to Specify a pattern.
The following patterns can be used with LIKE clause. The patterns can be used in combination.

Match string with zero or more characters

Match any single character

NOT LIKE is used to specify records that don't meet the pattern.
Imagine we have table called CUSTOMER, with the following data:

Rambo

Robert

Belgium

Mugambo

Satraj

Norway

Nagashekar

Rao

India

Tom

Harry

Brazil

Dana

Laura

Australia

Rambo

Fox

New Zealand

Giselle

Chivvi

Japan

Scenario 1: Get me all records where Customer's Country starts with N. We can use a LIKE Clause with % to specify the above criteria.

SELECT * from Customer WHERE COUNTRY LIKE 'N%'

Result:

Mugambo

Satraj

Norway

Rambo

Fox

New Zealand

In the above WHERE Clause, we used LIKE Condition to display only the Customers who's Country starts with N

Scenario 2: Get me all records where Customer's Country does NOT start with N. We can use a NOT LIKE Clause with % to specify the above criteria.

SELECT * from Customer WHERE COUNTRY NOT LIKE 'N%'

Result:

Rambo

Robert

Belgium

Nagashekar

Rao

India

Tom

Harry

Brazil

Dana

Laura

Australia

Giselle

Chivvi

Japan

In the above WHERE Clause, we used NOT LIKE Condition to display only the Customers who's country does NOT start with N.

Scenario 3: Get me all records where Customer's Name is of three characters and starts with T. We can use a LIKE Clause with _ to specify the above criteria.

SELECT * from Customer WHERE FIRSTNAME LIKE 'T__'

Result:

Tom

Harry

Brazil

In the above WHERE Clause, we used LIKE Condition to display only the Customers who's FIRSTNAME starts with T followed by two __, that is, three characters in total.