LIKE-predicate

The LIKE predicate retrieves rows where the string value of a column matches a specified pattern. The pattern can contain one or more wildcard characters, which match all valid characters. ILIKE is equivalent to LIKE except that the match is case-insensitive (non-standard extension).

Syntax

string { LIKE | ILIKE } pattern [ESCAPE escape-character]

string NOT { LIKE | ILIKE } pattern [ESCAPE escape-character]

Semantics

string	(CHAR or VARCHAR) is the column value to be compared to the pattern.
NOT	returns true if LIKE returns false, and vice versa (equivalent to `NOT` string `LIKE` pattern).
pattern	specifies a string containing wildcard characters. underscore (_) matches any single character. percent sign (%) matches any string of zero or more characters.
ESCAPE	specifies an escape-character. A null escape character ('') disables the escape mechanism. To match the escape character itself, use two consecutive escape characters.
escape-character	when preceding an underscore or percent sign character in the pattern, causes that character to be treated as a literal rather than a wildcard. The default escape character is the backslash (/) character.

Notes

LIKE requires the entire string expression to match the pattern. To match a sequence of characters anywhere within a string, the pattern must start and end with a percent sign.
The LIKE predicate does not ignore trailing "white space" characters. If the data values that you want to match have unknown numbers of trailing spaces, tabs, etc., terminate each LIKE predicate pattern with the percent sign wildcard character.
To use a backslash character as a literal, specify a different escape character and use two backslashes. For example, if the escape character is circumflex (^), you would use ^\\ to specify a literal backslash. (Alternative: simply use four backslashes.)
The use of a column data type other than character or character varying (implicit string conversion) is not supported and not recommended.
Error messages caused by the LIKE predicate may refer to it by the following symbols instead of the actual keywords:

~~

LIKE

~~*

ILIKE

!~~

NOT LIKE

!~~*

NOT ILIKE

Examples

'abc' LIKE 'abc' true

'abc' LIKE 'a%' true

'abc' LIKE '_b_' true

'abc' LIKE 'c' false