WILDCARDS

A wildcard character is used to substitute one or more characters in a string.

Wildcard characters are used with LIKE. Click Here for more info on LIKE.

WILDCARD CHARACTERS IN MS ACCESS

SYMBOL	DESCRIPTION	EXAMPLE
*	Represents zero or more characters	bl* finds bl, black, blue, and blob
?	Represents a single character	h?t finds hot, hat, and hit
[]	Represents any single character within the brackets	h[oa]t finds hot and hat, but not hit
!	Represents any character not in the brackets	h[!oa]t finds hit, but not hot and hat
-	Represents a range of characters	c[a-b]t finds cat and cbt
#	Represents any single numeric character	2#5 finds 205, 215, 225, 235, 245, 255, 265, 275, 285, and 295

WILDCARD CHARACTERS IN SQL SERVER

SYMBOL	DESCRIPTION	EXAMPLE
%	Represents zero or more characters	bl% finds bl, black, blue, and blob
_	Represents a single character	h_t finds hot, hat, and hit
[]	Represents any single character within the brackets	h[oa]t finds hot and hat, but not hit
^	Represents any character not in the brackets	h[^oa]t finds hit, but not hot and hat
-	Represents a range of characters	c[a-b]t finds cat and cbt

EXAMPLES WITH LIKE opearor:

Like Operator	Description
LIKE ‘a%’	Finds any values that start with “a”
LIKE ‘%a’	Finds any values that end with “a”
LIKE ‘%or%’	Finds any values that have “or” in any position
LIKE ‘_r%’	Finds any values that have “r” in the second position
LIKE ‘a_%’	Finds any values that start with “a” and are at least 2 characters in length
LIKE ‘a__%’	Finds any values that start with “a” and are at least 3 characters in length
LIKE ‘a%o’	Finds any values that start with “a” and ends with “o”