Wildcard in Sql Server Select

the LIKE operator allows us to perform basic pattern-matching using wildcard characters. For Microsoft SQL Server, the wildcard characters are defined as follows:

Wildcard	Description
_ (underscore)	matches any single character
%	matches a string of one or more characters
[ ]	matches any single character within the specified range (e.g. [a-f]) or set (e.g. [abcdef]).
[^]	matches any single character not within the specified range (e.g. [^a-f]) or set (e.g. [^abcdef]).

A few examples should help clarify these rules.

• WHERE FirstName LIKE '_im' finds all three-letter first names that end with 'im' (e.g. Jim, Tim).
• WHERE LastName LIKE '%stein' finds all employees whose last name ends with 'stein'
• WHERE LastName LIKE '%stein%' finds all employees whose last name includes 'stein' anywhere in the name.
• WHERE FirstName LIKE '[JT]im' finds three-letter first names that end with 'im' and begin with either 'J' or 'T' (that is, only Jim and Tim)
• WHERE LastName LIKE 'm[^c]%' finds all last names beginning with 'm' where the following (second) letter is not 'c'.