Multiple choice technology databases

With SQL, how do you select all the records from a table named 'Persons' where the value of the column 'FirstName' starts with an 'a'?

  1. SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName LIKE 'a%'

  2. SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName LIKE '%a'

  3. SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='a'

  4. SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='%a%'
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The LIKE operator in SQL uses the '%' wildcard to represent zero or more characters. To find a value starting with 'a', the pattern 'a%' is used. '%a' would find values ending with 'a', and '%a%' would find 'a' anywhere in the string.

AI explanation

To answer this question, you need to understand how to use the LIKE operator in SQL. The LIKE operator is used to search for a specified pattern in a column.

Let's go through each option to understand why it is correct or incorrect:

Option A) SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName LIKE 'a%' - This option is correct. The LIKE 'a%' condition will select all records from the 'Persons' table where the value of the 'FirstName' column starts with an 'a'.

Option B) SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName LIKE '%a' - This option is incorrect. The LIKE '%a' condition will select all records from the 'Persons' table where the value of the 'FirstName' column ends with an 'a', not starts with an 'a'.

Option C) SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='a' - This option is incorrect. The = operator is used for exact matches. The condition FirstName='a' will select only the records where the value of the 'FirstName' column is exactly 'a', not those that start with an 'a'.

Option D) SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='%a%' - This option is incorrect. The % wildcard character is used to match any sequence of characters. The condition FirstName='%a%' will select all records where the value of the 'FirstName' column contains an 'a' anywhere, not just at the beginning.

The correct answer is Option A) SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName LIKE 'a%'. This option is correct because it selects all records from the 'Persons' table where the value of the 'FirstName' column starts with an 'a'.

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