I am using SQL Server 2012 and I need to perform a search on a specific field, called Notes. The search criteria is to find all rows where the term 8% is mentioned in that specific field.
The WHERE clause of my T-SQL query looks like this:
WHERE [Notes] like '%[8%]%'
However, the query is not filtering correctly based on the above syntax. It is also including rows where the term 8 is mentioned.
I had a look at the answers proposed in the question below, but they are still not giving me the correct answer.
SQL 'LIKE' query using '%' where the search criteria contains '%'
A single character class represents a single character. So [%] means a literal percent symbol, and 8[%] means literal 8%. Try this:
SELECT * FROM yourTable WHERE [Notes] like '%8[%]%'
Demo
you need to escape % in query for example below
SELECT columns FROM table
WHERE column LIKE '%\%%' ESCAPE '\'
Using SQL Escape Sequences
Below is from MSDN
Pattern Matching with the ESCAPE Clause
You can search for character strings that include one or more of the special wildcard characters. For example, the discounts table in a customers database may store discount values that include a percent sign (%). To search for the percent sign as a character instead of as a wildcard character, the ESCAPE keyword and escape character must be provided. For example, a sample database contains a column named comment that contains the text 30%. To search for any rows that contain the string 30% anywhere in the comment column, specify a WHERE clause such as WHERE comment LIKE '%30!%%' ESCAPE '!'. If ESCAPE and the escape character are not specified, the Database Engine returns any rows with the string 30.
you can try below answer given by #TimBiegeleisen that is also easy way.
just change your where clause as
WHERE `Notes` LIKE '%8!%%' ESCAPE '!
How to retrieve a column containing special characters including alphabets in SQL Query. i have a column like this 'abc%def'. i want to retrieve '%' based columns from that table.
Please help me in this regard.
Is abc%def the column name? or column value? Not sure what you are asking but if you mean your column name contains special character then you can escape them which would be different based on specific RDBMS you are using
SQL Server use []
select [abc%def] from tab
MySQL use backquote
select `abc%def` from tab
EDIT:
Try like below to fetch column value containing % character (Checked, it works in Ingres as well)
select * from tab where col like '%%%'
Others suggest that like '%%%' works in Ingres. So this is something special in Ingres. It does not work in other dbms.
In standard SQL you would have to declare an escape character. I think this should work in Ingres, too.
select * from mytable where str like '%!%%' escape '!';
I wrote the below SQL query with a LIKE condition:
SELECT * FROM Manager
WHERE managerid LIKE '_%'
AND managername LIKE '%_%'
In the LIKE I want to search for any underscores %_%, but I know that my columns' data has no underscore characters.
Why does the query give me all the records from the table?
Sample data:
create table Manager(
id int
,managerid varchar(3)
,managername varchar(50)
);
insert into Manager(id,managerid,managername)values(1,'A1','Mangesh');
insert into Manager(id,managerid,managername)values(2,'A2','Sagar');
insert into Manager(id,managerid,managername)values(3,'C3','Ahmad');
insert into Manager(id,managerid,managername)values(4,'A4','Mango');
insert into Manager(id,managerid,managername)values(5,'B5','Sandesh');
Sql-Fiddle
Modify your WHERE condition like this:
WHERE mycolumn LIKE '%\_%' ESCAPE '\'
This is one of the ways in which Oracle supports escape characters. Here you define the escape character with the escape keyword. For details see this link on Oracle Docs.
The '_' and '%' are wildcards in a LIKE operated statement in SQL.
The _ character looks for a presence of (any) one single character. If you search by columnName LIKE '_abc', it will give you result with rows having 'aabc', 'xabc', '1abc', '#abc' but NOT 'abc', 'abcc', 'xabcd' and so on.
The '%' character is used for matching 0 or more number of characters. That means, if you search by columnName LIKE '%abc', it will give you result with having 'abc', 'aabc', 'xyzabc' and so on, but no 'xyzabcd', 'xabcdd' and any other string that does not end with 'abc'.
In your case you have searched by '%_%'. This will give all the rows with that column having one or more characters, that means any characters, as its value. This is why you are getting all the rows even though there is no _ in your column values.
The underscore is the wildcard in a LIKE query for one arbitrary character.
Hence LIKE %_% means "give me all records with at least one arbitrary character in this column".
You have to escape the wildcard character, in sql-server with [] around:
SELECT m.*
FROM Manager m
WHERE m.managerid LIKE '[_]%'
AND m.managername LIKE '%[_]%'
See: LIKE (Transact-SQL)
Demo
As you want to specifically search for a wildcard character you need to escape that
This is done by adding the ESCAPE clause to your LIKE expression. The character that is specified with the ESCAPE clause will "invalidate" the following wildcard character.
You can use any character you like (just not a wildcard character). Most people use a \ because that is what many programming languages also use
So your query would result in:
select *
from Manager
where managerid LIKE '\_%' escape '\'
and managername like '%\_%' escape '\';
But you can just as well use any other character:
select *
from Manager
where managerid LIKE '#_%' escape '#'
and managername like '%#_%' escape '#';
Here is an SQLFiddle example: http://sqlfiddle.com/#!6/63e88/4
Underscore is a wildcard for something.
for example
'A_%' will look for all match that Start whit 'A' and have minimum 1 extra character after that
In case people are searching how to do it in BigQuery:
An underscore "_" matches a single character or byte.
You can escape "\", "_", or "%" using two backslashes. For example, "\%". If you are using raw strings, only a single backslash is required. For example, r"\%".
WHERE mycolumn LIKE '%\\_%'
Source: https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/reference/standard-sql/operators
You can write the query as below:
SELECT * FROM Manager
WHERE managerid LIKE '\_%' escape '\'
AND managername LIKE '%\_%' escape '\';
it will solve your problem.
If a field value in the table of SQL Server is like A(B) and if I to write a query
SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE MyField = 'A(B)'
it is not returning any result. How to handle this situation?
Your query should work fine, if you want to specify a different escape parameter, you can use ESCAPE.
WHERE column LIKE '%A#(B#)%' ESCAPE '#'
Also, if you want to match anything that contains "A(B)", don't forget to surround it by percetages symbols.
I know you can use LIKE for a select statement to search for a string and then use wildcards to match that string.. ex:
Select * from table where first_name LIKE '%r%';
Would return names such as robert, roland, craig, etc.
I'm curious how you would search for an actual wildcard in the string such as the %:
Select * from table where values LIKE '% % %';
(the middle % being what you would be looking for) (obviously this is not the correct way to do it which is why I'm asking).
How about
LIKE '%\%%' ESCAPE '\'
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B12037_01/server.101/b10759/conditions016.htm
Just LIKE '%%' will be even easier.