SQL Wildcards

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

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:

Demo Database

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

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table:

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 »

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';

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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 »

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]%';

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

Example

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

Try it Yourself »

Or:

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City NOT LIKE '[bsp]%';