SQL Mastery: 25 Practical Scenarios for Data Matching with LIKE

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

In SQL, the LIKE keyword is used in a WHERE clause to search for a specified pattern in a column. The LIKE operator is often used with wildcard characters to perform pattern matching. Here are some common scenarios and examples of using LIKE in SQL:

1. Basic Pattern Matching:

• Retrieve rows where a specific column starts with a certain sequence of characters:

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name LIKE 'prefix%';

• Retrieve rows where a specific column ends with a certain sequence of characters:

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name LIKE '%suffix';

• Retrieve rows where a specific column contains a certain sequence of characters anywhere:

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name LIKE '%keyword%';

2. Wildcard Characters:

• %: Represents zero or more characters.
• _: Represents a single character.
• Retrieve rows where a specific column starts with ‘A’ followed by any characters:

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name LIKE 'A%';

• Retrieve rows where a specific column has ‘a’ as the second character: