Oracle SQL using Like for a wildcard - sql

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.

Related

SQLite select rows containing whole word

I need to select rows that contains a whole word, NOT a substring. For example from these rows:
System works good
I have some goodies
I need to get only first one (that contains word good), but with my sql query I get both of them.
select *
from my_tab
where my_column like '%good%'
Please note, I need this in sqlite, where not all usual sql functions are available.
You can check it like a space between both % symbols and a and % int end of the word and a % and to the beginning of the word which you need to search.
Query
select * from your_table_name
where words like '% good %'
or words like 'good %'
or words like '% good';
Try
select *
from table
where ' '||words||' ' like '% good %'

Use hyphen ("-") in SQLite LIKE clause

I am trying to use a hyphen in a SQLite LIKE string, but it is not working.
Sample search string:
SELECT Name from Table where Name LIKE 'abc - %'
This returns zero results. Whereas the following will, of course, return all names that start with 'abc'.
SELECT Name from Table where Name LIKE 'abc%'
I've tried using the ESCAPE clause like this:
SELECT Name from Table where Name LIKE 'abc !-' ESCAPE '!'
But again, no Names are returned.
Oddly, all of the other questions seem to refer to escaping the '%' and '_' characters, but none address the escaping of the '-' (hyphen).
How can I do this?
After further investigation, it appears that the lack of results when a hyphen is present is a bug in SQLiteStudio (using V3.1.0) the GUI I'm using with SQLite. When I tried the SQL statement (with the '-' and without the ESCAPE clause) in the Command Line Interface, it returned the expected results.

Why does using an Underscore character in a LIKE filter give me all the results?

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.

Access Queries like command Wildcard

I want to use the like command in a query to find specific results in Access. In the field that I want to utilize the like command has the wildcard (*) command in that field, which I want to search by. Is there a way around this? Example below:
SELECT *
FROM TABLE_NAME
WHERE FIELD_NAME LIKE '*'
Assuming you want to find columns that actually contain an asterisk (*) via the LIKE operator, here is an idea to try (see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access-help/using-wildcard-characters-in-string-comparisons-HP001032284.aspx )
SELECT *
FROM TABLE_NAME
WHERE FIELD_NAME LIKE '[*]'
The square brackets indicate that it's a literal asterisk to match, and not a wildcard.
* is not a wildcard in sql server like. So you can use:
SELECT *
FROM TABLE_NAME
WHERE FIELD_NAME LIKE '%*%' ;
If you want to search for actual wildcard %, you can change the wilcard to something else say &
SELECT *
FROM TABLE_NAME
WHERE FIELD_NAME LIKE '&%&' ESCAPE '&';

LIKE contains %

I have record in table like 'abc 100% text'.
I want to search all the records that contain 100%.
What will be LIKE query?
SELECT * FROM TABLE where ColName LIKE '100%%'
above query returns wrong results.
Thanks.
SELECT * FROM TABLE where ColName LIKE '%100[%]%'
Have a look at Using Wildcard Characters As Literals
You can use the wildcard pattern matching characters as literal characters. To use a wildcard character as a literal character, enclose the wildcard character in brackets.
SELECT columns FROM table WHERE column LIKE '%[%]%'
or
SELECT columns FROM table WHERE column LIKE '%\%%' ESCAPE '\'
as described in http://web.archive.org/web/20150519072547/http://sqlserver2000.databases.aspfaq.com:80/how-do-i-search-for-special-characters-e-g-in-sql-server.html
Additionally, you can use escape charaters...
LIKE '%100^%%' ESCAPE '^'
http://web.archive.org/web/20150519072547/http://sqlserver2000.databases.aspfaq.com:80/how-do-i-search-for-special-characters-e-g-in-sql-server.html
Use a backslash to escape:
SELECT * FROM TABLE where ColName LIKE '%100\%%';
You may need to try this:
SELECT * FROM TABLE where ColName LIKE '%100\%%' ESCAPE '\';