How can I search for rows that contain a non-alphanumeric or space character?

Question

I want to search a table for all rows that contain a non-alphanumeric and non-space character in a specific field. What I have so far:

SELECT *
FROM myTable
WHERE myField LIKE '%[^a-zA-Z0-9]%'

As far as I can tell, this returns all non-alphanumeric fields. However, spaces are fine, so I don't want to return rows where the only non-alphanumeric character is a space. How can I adjust this query?

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 26 '11 at 07:25

13

How about you add the space:

SELECT *
FROM myTable
WHERE myField LIKE '%[^a-zA-Z0-9 ]%'

answered Jul 26 '11 at 07:25

Petar Ivanov

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Now I'm confused (and feel silly). I thought I just tried that and it didn't work... But I just tried again and it did :-/ Maybe it's just too early in the morning... thanks! – froadie Jul 26 '11 at 07:29
It doesn't let me accept the answer yet... I will in about 8 minutes :) – froadie Jul 26 '11 at 07:30

How can I search for rows that contain a non-alphanumeric or space character?

1 Answers1