SQL Wildcards

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A wildcard character can be used to substitute for any other character(s) in a string.

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SQL Wildcard Characters

In SQL, wildcard characters are used with the SQL LIKE operator.

SQL wildcards are used to search for data within a table. 

With SQL, the wildcards are:

Wildcard	Description
%	A substitute for zero or more characters
_	A substitute for a single character
[charlist]	Sets and ranges of characters to match
[^charlist] or [!charlist]	Matches only a character NOT specified within the brackets

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Demo Database

In this tutorial we will use the well-known Northwind sample database.

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table:

CustomerID	CustomerName	ContactName	Address	City	PostalCode	Country
1	Alfreds Futterkiste	Maria Anders	Obere Str. 57	Berlin	12209	Germany
2	Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados	Ana Trujillo	Avda. de la Constitución 2222	México D.F.	05021	Mexico
3	Antonio Moreno Taquería	Antonio Moreno	Mataderos 2312	México D.F.	05023	Mexico
4	Around the Horn	Thomas Hardy	120 Hanover Sq.	London	WA1 1DP	UK
5	Berglunds snabbköp	Christina Berglund	Berguvsvägen 8	Luleå	S-958 22	Sweden

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Using the SQL % Wildcard

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City starting with "ber":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE 'ber%';

Try it yourself »

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City containing the pattern "es": 

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE '%es%';

Try it yourself »

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Using the SQL _ Wildcard

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City starting with any character, followed by "erlin":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE '_erlin';

Try it yourself »

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City starting with "L", followed by any character, followed by "n", followed by any character, followed by "on":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE 'L_n_on';

Try it yourself »

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Using the SQL [charlist] Wildcard

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City starting with "b", "s", or "p":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE '[bsp]%';

Try it yourself »

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City starting with "a", "b", or "c":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE '[a-c]%';

Try it yourself »

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City NOT starting with "b", "s", or "p":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE '[!bsp]%';

Try it yourself »

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