How to match one character in MySQL in place of %?

To match only one character in MySQL, you can use underscore(_) in place of %. The syntax is as follows:

SELECT *FROM yourTableName WHERE yourColumnName LIKE ‘yourString_’;

To understand the above syntax, let us create a table. The query to create a table is as follows:

mysql> create table OneCharactermatchDemo
   -> (
   -> Id int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
   -> PassoutYear year,
   -> PRIMARY KEY(Id)
   -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.76 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command. The query is as follows:

mysql> insert into OneCharactermatchDemo(PassoutYear) values('2008');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)
mysql> insert into OneCharactermatchDemo(PassoutYear) values('2007');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.18 sec)
mysql> insert into OneCharactermatchDemo(PassoutYear) values('2010');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec)
mysql> insert into OneCharactermatchDemo(PassoutYear) values('2011');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)
mysql> insert into OneCharactermatchDemo(PassoutYear) values('2012');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec)
mysql> insert into OneCharactermatchDemo(PassoutYear) values('2006');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec)
mysql> insert into OneCharactermatchDemo(PassoutYear) values('2019');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)
mysql> insert into OneCharactermatchDemo(PassoutYear) values('2016');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)
mysql> insert into OneCharactermatchDemo(PassoutYear) values('2017');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.34 sec)
mysql> insert into OneCharactermatchDemo(PassoutYear) values('2015');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.17 sec)
mysql> insert into OneCharactermatchDemo(PassoutYear) values('2020');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement. The query is as follows:

mysql> select *from OneCharactermatchDemo;

The following is the output:

+----+-------------+
| Id | PassoutYear |
+----+-------------+
|  1 |        2008 |
|  2 |        2007 |
|  3 |        2010 |
|  4 |        2011 |
|  5 |        2012 |
|  6 |        2006 |
|  7 |        2019 |
|  8 |        2016 |
|  9 |        2017 |
| 10 |        2015 |
| 11 |        2020 |
+----+-------------+
11 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Here is the query to match only one character using underscore. The query is as follows:

mysql> select *from OneCharactermatchDemo where PassoutYear Like '200_';

The following is the output:

+----+-------------+
| Id | PassoutYear |
+----+-------------+
|  1 |        2008 |
|  2 |        2007 |
|  6 |        2006 |
+----+-------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)