SQL - LIKE Operator Examples

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City starting with the letter "s":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE 's%';

Try it Yourself »

Tip: The "%" sign is used to define wildcards (missing letters) both before and after the pattern. You will learn more about wildcards in the next chapter.

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a City ending with the letter "s":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City LIKE '%s';

Try it Yourself »

The following SQL statement selects all customers with a Country containing the pattern "land":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE Country LIKE '%land%';

Try it Yourself »

Using the NOT keyword allows you to select records that do NOT match the pattern.

The following SQL statement selects all customers with Country NOT containing the pattern "land":

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE Country NOT LIKE '%land%';

Try it Yourself »

SQL - Delete All Data

It is possible to delete all rows in a table without deleting the table. This means that the table structure, attributes, and indexes will be intact:

DELETE FROM table_name;

or

DELETE * FROM table_name;

Note: Be very careful when deleting records. You cannot undo this statement!

SQL - DELETE Example

Assume we wish to delete the customer "Alfreds Futterkiste" from the "Customers" table.

We use the following SQL statement:

Example

DELETE FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName='Alfreds Futterkiste' AND ContactName='Maria Anders';

Try it Yourself »