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Wildcard Searches

This section discusses using wildcard searches in your SQL comparisons in the Platform, including CONTAINS, STARTS WITH, ENDS WITH, and LIKE.

Wildcards use the LIKE keyword with a wildcard (%) because they are not exact matches.

Note: If you use equals (=) rather than LIKE, you only get exact matches. The system matches the percent symbol (%) rather than uses it as a wildcard.

CONTAINS

The CONTAINS Wildcard search uses wildcards at the beginning and end. This example would return "Johnson, Kate" and "Smith, John."

Display_Name LIKE '%John%'

STARTS WITH & ENDS WITH

STARTS WITH uses a wildcard at the end. The name "Johnson, Kate" would be returned, but not "Smith, John"

Display_Name LIKE 'John%'

ENDS WITH uses a wildcard at the beginning:

Display_Name LIKE '%John'

It would return "Smith, John" but not "Smith, Johnny"

LIKE

Use the LIKE comparison to enter your own wildcard combination. It is useful for more complex comparisons, such as:

Email_Address LIKE john%@%.com