Command Discussion

• The column name following the WHERE clause must contain character values; otherwise, the LIKE operator cannot be used.

• The LIKE operator compares the value in the specified column with the pattern, as inserted in single quotes following LIKE. A row is retrieved if a match occurs.

• You can put any Metamorph query in quotes ('query') in place of a fixed length string, although you would need to escape a literal ' with another ' by typing '', if you want the character ' to be part of the query.

• The "pattern" inside single quotes following LIKE will be interpreted exactly as Metamorph would interpret such a query on its query line, in any Metamorph application (with the only exception being that a single quote or apostrophe must be escaped with another ' to be interpreted literally).

• Concept searching is off by default for Metamorph queries following LIKE, but can be selectively invoked on a word using the tilde `~'.

• Syntax for complete use of Metamorph query language is covered in Chapter here.

• Queries using LIKE can make use of any indexing which has been done. An alternate form of LIKE may also be used called LIKE3, which uses indexing exclusively with no post search. See Chapter here for a thorough explanation of all types of text searches possible with LIKE and LIKE3, and their relation to indexed information.

Example: Let's start with a simple example. You wish to retrieve all reports where "ink" is part of the title, without knowing the full title.

If you enter the statement:

SELECT  TITLE
     FROM    REPORT
     WHERE   TITLE  LIKE  'ink' ;

TITLE
  Innovations in Disappearing Ink
  Disappearing Ink Promotional Campaign
  Ink Color Panorama

In this query, you are retrieving the titles of all reports whose title is "like" the pattern "ink".

In other cases you may not know the exact words you are looking for. A simple example where a wildcard '*' is used follows.

SELECT  AUTHOR, DEPT
     FROM    REPORT
     WHERE   AUTHOR  LIKE  'san*' ;

AUTHOR                 DEPT
  Sanchez, Carla         MKT
  Sanders, George G.     FIN
  Claus, Santa           MKT