Welcome to the Treehouse Community
Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.
Looking to learn something new?
Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.
Start your free trialJ R
Courses Plus Student 12,168 PointsWhy doesn't ' WHERE LAST_NAME <= 'N' ' work?
I was trying out different methods answer the question asked in the video and tried the code below but the last result only goes to 'Murray'.
SELECT * FROM STUDENTS WHERE LAST_NAME <= 'N' ORDER BY LAST_NAME ASC
I was wondering why it doesn't include last names starting with N, even though it's an equal to or less than operator.
4 Answers
Steven Parker
231,184 PointsAnything with other letters following "N" would be considered to come later in alphabetic sequence, so only the single letter "N" would meet this condition.
You'd be likely to get the behavior you want with something like <= "Nzzzzz"
, but an even safer test would be:
WHERE LAST_NAME < 'O' -- include everything starting with 'A' through 'N'
Stephen Cole
Courses Plus Student 15,809 PointsDid you mean:
SELECT LAST_NAME, FIRST_NAME FROM STUDENTS
WHERE LAST_NAME <= 'M'
ORDER BY LAST_NAME ASC;
This does solve the problem of printing a list of names A-M:
WHERE LAST_NAME <= 'N'
...as words (with multiple letters) that start with the letter M are before the single letter N.
However, if you use this...
WHERE LAST_NAME <= 'M'
...there is no way to account for words that start with the letter M. It's a single value. (There's no way to use a wildcard character.)
Samuel Kleos
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 13,307 PointsThank you! This was the answer I was looking for. 😃
Sumiya Malik
3,976 PointsTHIS IS HOW I DID. COMMENTS APPRECIATED.
-- Generate a list of students with last names from A to M
SELECT * FROM Students WHERE last_name BETWEEN 'A%' AND 'N%'
ORDER BY last_name
Beau Coplin
7,903 PointsYou can also write it like this:
SELECT * FROM Students
WHERE last_name < "N"
ORDER BY last_name asc
You get the same result as above because you are filtering out everything "less than" N which gives you A-M