How to Perform a MySQL Join Query with the LIKE Operator?

MySQL LIKE Join Query

This article addresses the challenge of performing a MySQL join query using the LIKE operator. The query presented in the question, which attempts to match columns from two tables based on partial string similarity, is not working as expected.

Solution

To resolve this issue, the query should be modified as follows:

SELECT *
FROM Table1
INNER JOIN Table2 ON Table1.col LIKE CONCAT('%', Table2.col, '%')

MySQL Concatenation

The key difference lies in the concatenation operator used. MySQL handles string concatenation differently than some other databases. In this case, the CONCAT() function is used to concatenate the wildcard character '%' with the Table2.col column. This allows the LIKE operator to perform pattern matching with partial matches.

Alternatives

In other databases, the || operator may be used for concatenation. However, this operator is not supported in MySQL as it is used for the logical OR operation.

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