Mirror of <https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/data/data-cloud-query-guide/references/dc-sql-reference/like.html> (Salesforce, Data 360 Query Guide), read 2026-10-23. Salesforce's own page is the authority; this copy exists because that site refuses non-browser readers.

`LIKE` / `ILIKE`

Applies to: ✅ Data 360 SQL ✅ Tableau Hyper API

Pattern matching operator that checks whether a string matches a specified pattern using wildcards. LIKE is case-sensitive, but ILIKE is case-insensitive.

<string>: The string to match against.
<pattern>: The pattern to match, which can contain wildcard characters.

<escape_character>: The character used to escape wildcard characters. Defaults to backslash (\).

Returns a boolean value indicating whether the string matches the pattern.

Wildcards: _ matches any single character. % matches any sequence of zero or more characters.
Full string match: LIKE always covers the entire string. Use % at the start and end to match anywhere within a string.
Escaping: To match a literal _ or %, precede it with the escape character.
No escape: Use ESCAPE '' to disable escape character handling.

Operator	Equivalent
`~~`	`LIKE`
`~~*`	`ILIKE`
`!~~`	`NOT LIKE`
`!~~*`	`NOT ILIKE`

Match strings using wildcards.

Returns true.

Returns true because % matches any sequence of characters.

Returns true because _ matches any single character.

Use ILIKE for case-insensitive matching.

Returns true.

Match literal wildcard characters.

Returns true because \_ matches a literal underscore.

Use a custom escape character.

Returns true using ! as the escape character.

Find a pattern anywhere within a string.

Returns all products with “widget” anywhere in the name.

LIKE / ILIKE

`LIKE` / `ILIKE`