% (Wildcard - Character(s) to Match) (Transact-SQL)

Matches any string of zero or more characters. This wildcard character can be used as either a prefix or a suffix. For more information, see Pattern Matching in Search Conditions.

Topic link iconTransact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Examples

The following example returns all the first names of people in the Contact table of AdventureWorks that start with Dan.

USE AdventureWorks;
GO
SELECT FirstName, LastName
FROM Person.Contact
WHERE FirstName LIKE 'Dan%';
GO

See Also

Reference

LIKE (Transact-SQL)
Operators (Transact-SQL)
Expressions (Transact-SQL)

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance