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General Discussion

Ryan Aves
Ryan Aves
2,203 Points
Posted by Ryan Aves
Ryan Aves
2,203 Points

Not recognizing SQL wildcard characters

This question asks for a Union between the two tables where name begins with A-K.

I keep entering this statement which I believed to be correct, yet the answer still shows as incorrect.

SELECT Name from Fruit WHERE Name LIKE '[a-k]%' UNION SELECT Name from Vegetable WHERE Name LIKE '[a-k%]';

Is something wrong with my LIKE keyword?

2 Answers

Stuart Wright
Stuart Wright
41,120 Points
Stuart Wright
Stuart Wright
41,120 Points

I’m not actually sure which, if either, of these is correct, but just wanted to point out that you’ve used two different variants on the syntax in your query, and I guess they can’t both be right:

[a-k]% [a-k%]

The first one looks more sensible to me, but I don’t know for sure that it’s correct.

Ryan Aves
Ryan Aves
2,203 Points
Ryan Aves
Ryan Aves
2,203 Points

Thank you for the catch, Stuart.

I re-tried with [a-k]% in both 'Select' queries (and then [a-k%] for good measure), but both drew errors.

Stuart Wright
Stuart Wright
41,120 Points
Stuart Wright
Stuart Wright
41,120 Points

I just created a small database with one table on my local machine, with two rows ('apple' and 'orange'). I attempted:

SELECT * FROM Fruit WHERE Name LIKE '[a-k]%';

And got no results back. So I don't think the above pattern works in SQLite, and the challenge is correct to not let your code pass. It does work in some other SQL variants (minor variations exist among the various different SQL variants).

There are other ways to complete the challenge. For example:

WHERE Name >= 'A' and Name < 'L'
Ryan Aves
Ryan Aves
2,203 Points
Ryan Aves
Ryan Aves
2,203 Points

Stuart, that worked! Great catch, I imagine you're right that the pattern wasn't compatible with SQLite. Thanks again.