Beginner

105. String Search

Learn different ways to search for text values inside SQL data.

📘 Lesson 105 of 728 ⏱ 8 min 🎯 Beginner

String searching means checking whether a text column contains a specific value, word, character, or pattern. SQL commonly uses operators and functions such as LIKE, CHARINDEX, POSITION, or database-specific alternatives.

Text search is a common requirement when analysts need to find customers, products, employees, addresses, or transactions matching a particular text pattern.

An analyst may need to find all customers whose names contain the word 'Kumar'.

SQL
SELECT
    CustomerName
FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerName LIKE '%Kumar%';

String search is used in customer analysis, product searches, employee databases, support systems, and data-quality investigations.

  • LIKE is commonly used for text searching.
  • Wildcards can be used with LIKE.
  • String functions can locate text positions.
  • Search techniques depend on the database system.
  • Text search is common in analytical queries.
How can you search for text in SQL?

You can use operators such as LIKE or string-search functions depending on the requirement and database system.

What does LIKE '%Kumar%' mean?

It searches for rows where the text contains 'Kumar' anywhere in the value.

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