What does '%***%' mean?

Question

I see a SQL code like this select * from table where id not like '%***%' What is this code trying to exclude?

in SQL `%` is a wildcard (zero or more characters). You are selecting any id without `***` in it — Joost Döbken, May 04 '22 at 14:30
Does this answer your question? [SQL SELECT WHERE field contains words](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14290857/sql-select-where-field-contains-words) — Osakr, May 04 '22 at 14:35

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 04 '22 at 14:37

0

The % is a wildcard. The *** doesn't mean anything special. So %***% means "any string that has *** somewhere in it."

If it was %*** it would be "any string that ended with ***" and if it was ***% it would be "any string that starts with ***".

answered May 04 '22 at 14:37

Andy Lester

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 04 '22 at 14:38

Basically :

LIKE 'e%' -- results that start with “e”
LIKE '%e' -- results that ends with “e”

But here, with your example :

select * from table where id not like '%exemple%'

Here, you are going to search every id in your table except "exemple" keyword

2 Answers2