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)