Beginner

183. LIKE with Underscore

Learn how the underscore wildcard matches a single character in a LIKE pattern.

📘 Lesson 183 of 728 ⏱ 8 min 🎯 Beginner

The underscore (_) wildcard commonly represents exactly one character in a LIKE pattern.

It is useful when the position and length of a text pattern are known but one or more characters may vary.

Find product codes where the second character can be any character.

SQL 
SELECT
    ProductCode
FROM Products
WHERE ProductCode LIKE 'A_25';

Underscore patterns can be useful for code validation, formatted identifiers, and structured text searches.

  • _ commonly matches exactly one character.
  • Multiple underscores can match multiple individual characters.
  • It can be combined with %.
  • It is useful for structured text patterns.
  • Wildcard behavior can vary slightly by database.
What does _ mean in LIKE?

The underscore wildcard commonly matches exactly one character.

Can _ and % be used together?

Yes. SQL LIKE patterns can combine different wildcard characters.

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