SQL LIKE Clause

The SQL LIKE clause is used to compare a value to similar values using wildcard operators. There are two
wildcards used in conjunction with the LIKE operator :-
 The percent sign (%)
 The underscore (_)

The percent sign represents zero, one, or multiple characters. The underscore represents a single number or
character. The symbols can be used in combinations.
Syntax:-
The basic syntax of % and _ is as follows :-

SELECT FROM table_name
WHERE column LIKE 'XXXX%'
or
SELECT FROM table_name
WHERE column LIKE '%XXXX%'
or
SELECT FROM table_name
WHERE column LIKE 'XXXX_'
or
SELECT FROM table_name
WHERE column LIKE '_XXXX'
or
SELECT FROM table_name
WHERE column LIKE '_XXXX_'

You can combine N number of conditions using AND or OR operators. Here, XXXX could be any numeric or string value.
Example :-
Here are number of examples showing WHERE part having different LIKE clause with '%' and '_' operators:

Let us take a real example, consider the CUSTOMERS table having the following records :-

Following is an example, which would display all the records from CUSTOMERS table where SALARY starts with 200 :-

SELECT * FROM CUSTOMERS

WHERE SALARY LIKE '200%';

This would produce the following result :-