How To Use LIKE Conditions

Q

How To Use LIKE Conditions? - Oracle DBA FAQ - Understanding SQL Basics

✍: FYIcenter.com

A

LIKE condition is also called pattern patch. There 3 main rules on using LIKE condition:

  • '_' is used in the pattern to match any one character.
  • '%' is used in the pattern to match any zero or more characters.
  • ESCAPE clause is used to provide the escape character in the pattern.

The following script provides you some good pattern matching examples:

SELECT CASE WHEN 'FYICenter.com' LIKE '%Center%' 
  THEN 'TRUE' ELSE 'FALSE' END FROM DUAL;
TRUE   

SELECT CASE WHEN 'FYICenter.com' LIKE '%CENTER%' 
  THEN 'TRUE' ELSE 'FALSE' END FROM DUAL;
  -- Case sensitive by default
FALSE

SELECT CASE WHEN 'FYICenter.com' LIKE '%Center_com' 
  THEN 'TRUE' ELSE 'FALSE' END FROM DUAL;
TRUE   

SELECT CASE WHEN '100% correct' LIKE '100\% %' ESCAPE '\' 
  THEN 'TRUE' ELSE 'FALSE' END FROM DUAL;
TRUE   

2007-04-23, 4537👍, 0💬