# SQL Wildcards

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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:

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

## 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

## 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';
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 »

## 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]%';
or
SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City NOT LIKE '[bsp]%';
Try it yourself »
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