php select from mysql where title begins with A (and A alone)

php mysql select alphabetical
SoulieBaby picture SoulieBaby · Jan 15, 2010 · Viewed 39.4k times · Source

I'm sure this is super easy, but can't seem to figure it out.. I need to select all titles from my database where the title starts with A, or B, or C etc. Here's what I've tried so far:

SELECT * FROM weblinks WHERE catid = 4 AND title LIKE 'A'

but returns nothing.. Could someone help me out with this?

Cheers

Answer

Tyler Carter picture Tyler Carter · Jan 15, 2010

For titles starting in 'A' use a % after the A

SELECT * FROM weblinks WHERE catid = 4 AND title LIKE 'A%'

For titles with the letter 'A' in it, use % on either side of A

SELECT * FROM weblinks WHERE catid = 4 AND title LIKE '%A%'

For titles ending in the letter 'A', use % before the A

SELECT * FROM weblinks WHERE catid = 4 AND title LIKE '%A'

Basically % is a wildcard. It tells MySQL that anything can be in the location.

For having numbers as the first letter, check out Mark's answer.

Related questions

How can I properly use a PDO object for a parameterized SELECT query

I've tried following the PHP.net instructions for doing SELECT queries but I am not sure the best way to go about doing this. I would like to use a parameterized SELECT query, if possible, to return the ID in …

Read More
How to create virtual column using MySQL SELECT?

If I do SELECT a AS b and b is not a column in the table, would query create the "virtual" column? in fact, I need to incorporate some virtual column into the query and process some information into the …

Read More
Selecting all columns that start with XXX using a wildcard?

I have several columns in my databases with similar names. How do I select those based on the word they start with? Here's an example table layout: I tried selecting all info for a particular thing (food kind in this …

Read More