Database System [LAB] Department of CS & IT

LAB # 05

Implementation of SQL
Wildcards & Operators

Lab Instructor: Mehk Fatima Page 1

Database System [LAB] Department of CS & IT

Lab Objective:

To understand SQL wild cards and the operators used in SQL.

SQL Wildcards
SQL wildcards can be used when searching for data in a database.

SQL wildcards can substitute for one or more characters when searching for data in a

database. SQL wildcards must be used with the SQL LIKE operator.

With SQL, the following wildcards can be used:

Wildcard Description

% A substitute for zero or more characters

_ A substitute for exactly one character

[charlist] Any single character in charlist

[^charlist] Any single character not in charlist

or

[!charlist]

SQL Wildcard Examples

We have the following "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Lab Instructor: Mehk Fatima Page 2

Database System [LAB] Department of CS & IT

Using the % Wildcard

Now we want to select the persons living in a city that starts with "sa" from the "Persons" table.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE City LIKE 'sa%'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that contains the pattern "nes" from the
"Persons" table.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE City LIKE '%nes%'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

Lab Instructor: Mehk Fatima Page 3

Database System [LAB] Department of CS & IT

Using the _ Wildcard

Now we want to select the persons with a first name that starts with any character, followed
by "la" from the "Persons" table.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE FirstName LIKE '_la'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

Using the [charlist] Wildcard

Now we want to select the persons with a last name that starts with "b" or "s" or "p" from
the "Persons" table.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM
Persons WHERE
LastName REGEXP
'^[bsp]'

The result-set will look like this:

Lab Instructor: Mehk Fatima Page 4

Database System [LAB] Department of CS & IT

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Next, we want to select the persons with a last name that do not start with "b" or "s" or "p" from
the "Persons" table.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM
Persons WHERE
LastName REGEXP
'^[^bsp]%'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

SQL IN Operator

The IN operator allows you to specify multiple values in a WHERE clause.

SQL IN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name IN (value1,value2,...)

Lab Instructor: Mehk Fatima Page 5

Database System [LAB] Department of CS & IT

IN Operator Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Now we want to select the persons with a last name equal to "Hansen" or "Pettersen" from the
table above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE LastName IN ('Hansen','Pettersen')

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Lab Instructor: Mehk Fatima Page 6

Database System [LAB] Department of CS & IT

SQL BETWEENOperator

The BETWEEN operator is used in a WHERE clause to select a range of data between two
values.

The BETWEEN operator selects a range of data between two values. The values can be
numbers, text, or dates.

SQL BETWEEN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name
BETWEEN value1 AND value2

BETWEEN Operator Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Now we want to select the persons with a last name alphabetically between "Hansen"
and "Pettersen" from the table above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

Lab Instructor: Mehk Fatima Page 7

Database System [LAB] Department of CS & IT

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE LastName
BETWEEN 'Hansen' AND 'Pettersen'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

Note: The BETWEEN operator is treated differently in different databases.

In some databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen" will not be
listed, because the BETWEEN operator only selects fields that are between and excluding
the test values).

In other databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen" will be listed,
because the BETWEEN operator selects fields that are between and including the test values).

And in other databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" will be listed, but "Pettersen"
will not be listed (like the example above), because the BETWEEN operator selects fields
between the test values, including the first test value and excluding the last test value.

Therefore: Check how your database treats the BETWEEN operator.

Example 2

To display the persons outside the range in the previous example, use NOT BETWEEN:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE LastName
NOT BETWEEN 'Hansen' AND 'Pettersen'

Lab Instructor: Mehk Fatima Page 8

Database System [LAB] Department of CS & IT

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Lab Tasks:

1: Consider the following table “Customers”:

Create the above table and do the following.

 Write an SQL statement that selects all Customers with a City starting with the letter “s”.
 Write an SQL statement that selects all Customers with a City ending with the letter “s”.
 Write an SQL statement that selects all Customers with a City containing the pattern
“land”.
 Write an SQL statement that selects all Customers with a City not containing the pattern
“land”.
 Write an SQL statement that selects the two first Customers from table who belong to
“Germany” or “Sweden”.
 Write an SQL statement that selects all Customers with a City of "Paris" or "London"
without using ‘OR’ operator.

Lab Instructor: Mehk Fatima Page 9

Database System [LAB] Department of CS & IT

2: Create the following table “Student”.

Write queries to extract the following outputs and show your result.

a):

b):

c):

d):

Lab Instructor: Mehk Fatima Page 10

Database System [LAB] Department of CS & IT

3: Consider the following table “Products”:

Create the above table and do the following.

 Write an SQL statement that selects all products with a price from 10 to 20.
 Write an SQL statement that selects all products with a price from 20 to 30.
 Write anSQL statement that selects all products with a pricefrom 10 to 22 but
products with a CategoryIDof 1,2, or 3 should not be displayed.
 Write an SQL statement that selects all products with a ProductName beginning with
any of the letter not between 'C' and 'M'.

Lab Instructor: Mehk Fatima Page 11