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SQL Reference

LIKE Predicate

>>-match-expression----+-----+--LIKE--pattern-expression-------->
                       '-NOT-'
 
>-----+----------------------------+---------------------------><
      '-ESCAPE--escape-expression--'

The LIKE predicate searches for strings that have a certain pattern. The pattern is specified by a string in which the underscore and percent sign may have special meanings. Trailing blanks in a pattern are part of the pattern.

If the value of any of the arguments is null, the result of the LIKE predicate is unknown.

The values for match-expression, pattern-expression, and escape-expression are compatible string expressions. There are slight differences in the types of string expressions supported for each of the arguments. The valid types of expressions are listed under the description of each argument.

None of the expressions can yield a distinct type. However, it can be a function that casts a distinct type to its source type.

match-expression
An expression that specifies the string that is to be examined to see if it conforms to a certain pattern of characters.

The expression can be specified by any one of:

pattern-expression
An expression that specifies the string that is to be matched.

The expression can be specified by any one of:

with the restrictions that:

A simple description of the use of the LIKE pattern is that the pattern is used to specify the conformance criteria for values in the match-expression where:

If the pattern-expression needs to include either the underscore or the percent character, the escape-expression is used to specify a character to preceed either the underscore or percent character in the pattern.

A rigorous description of the use of the LIKE pattern follows. Note that this description ignores the use of the escape-expression; its use is covered later.

Let m denote the value of match-expression and let p denote the value of pattern-expression. The string p is interpreted as a sequence of the minimum number of substring specifiers so each character of p is part of exactly one substring specifier. A substring specifier is an underscore, a percent sign, or any non-empty sequence of characters other than an underscore or a percent sign.

The result of the predicate is unknown if m or p is the null value. Otherwise, the result is either true or false. The result is true if m and p are both empty strings or there exists a partitioning of m into substrings such that:

  • A substring of m is a sequence of zero or more contiguous characters and each character of m is part of exactly one substring.

  • If the nth substring specifier is an underscore, the nth substring of m is any single character.

  • If the nth substring specifier is a percent sign, the nth substring of m is any sequence of zero or more characters.

  • If the nth substring specifier is neither an underscore nor a percent sign, the nth substring of m is equal to that substring specifier and has the same length as that substring specifier.

  • The number of substrings of m is the same as the number of substring specifiers.

It follows that if p is an empty string and m is not an empty string, the result is false. Similarly, it follows that if m is an empty string and p is not an empty string, the result is false.

The predicate m NOT LIKE p is equivalent to the search condition NOT (m LIKE p).

When the escape-expression is specified, the pattern-expression must not contain the escape character identified by the escape-expression except when immediately followed by the escape character, the underscore character or the percent sign character (SQLSTATE 22025).

If the match-expression is a character string in an MBCS database then it can contain mixed data. In this case, the pattern can include both SBCS and MBCS characters. The special characters in the pattern are interpreted as follows:

escape-expression
This optional argument is an expression that specifies a character to be used to modify the special meaning of the underscore (_) and percent (%) characters in the pattern-expression. This allows the LIKE predicate to be used to match values that contain the actual percent and underscore characters.

The expression can be specified by any one of:

with the restrictions that:

When escape characters are present in the pattern string, an underscore, percent sign, or escape character can represent a literal occurrence of itself. This is true if the character in question is preceded by an odd number of successive escape characters. It is not true otherwise.

In a pattern, a sequence of successive escape characters is treated as follows:

Let S be such a sequence, and suppose that S is not part of a larger sequence of successive escape characters. Suppose also that S contains a total of n characters. Then the rules governing S depend on the value of n:

  • If n is odd, S must be followed by an underscore or percent sign (SQLSTATE 22025). S and the character that follows it represent (n-1)/2 literal occurrences of the escape character followed by a literal occurrence of the underscore or percent sign.

  • If n is even, S represents n/2 literal occurrences of the escape character. Unlike the case where n is odd, S could end the pattern. If it does not end the pattern, it can be followed by any character (except, of course, an escape character, which would violate the assumption that S is not part of a larger sequence of successive escape characters). If S is followed by an underscore or percent sign, that character has its special meaning.

Following is a illustration of the effect of successive occurrences of the escape character (which, in this case, is the back slash (\) ).

Pattern string
Actual Pattern

\%
A percent sign

\\%
A back slash followed by zero or more arbitrary characters

\\\%
A back slash followed by a percent sign

The code page used in the comparison is based on the code page of the match-expression value.

Examples

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