How to search a column for an exact string in MySQL?

For exact string, you need to use wildcard ‘%’ with LIKE operator −

select *from yourTableName where binary yourColumnName LIKE '%yourStringValue%';

Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable(    Name varchar(20) ); Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.93 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Chris'); Query OK, 1 row affected (1.11 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable values('John'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.38 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Adam'); Query OK, 1 row affected (1.19 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable values('JOHN'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.60 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable values('ADAM'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.43 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output −

+-------+ | Name | +-------+ | Chris | | John | | Adam | | JOHN | | ADAM | +-------+ 5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to search a column for an exact string in SQL −

mysql> select *from DemoTable where binary Name LIKE '%JOHN%';

This will produce the following output −

+------+ | Name | +------+ | JOHN | +------+ 1 row in set (0.09 sec)