Why does using an Underscore character in a LIKE filter give me all the results?

Question

I wrote the below SQL query with a LIKE condition:

SELECT * FROM Manager
WHERE managerid LIKE \'_%\'
AND managername LIKE \'%_%\'

Answer 1

As you want to specifically search for a wildcard character you need to escape that

This is done by adding the ESCAPE clause to your LIKE expression. The character that is specified with the ESCAPE clause will "invalidate" the following wildcard character.

You can use any character you like (just not a wildcard character). Most people use a \ because that is what many programming languages also use

So your query would result in:

select * 
from Manager
where managerid LIKE '\_%' escape '\'
and managername like '%\_%' escape '\';

But you can just as well use any other character:

select * 
from Manager
where managerid LIKE '#_%' escape '#'
and managername like '%#_%' escape '#';

Here is an SQLFiddle example: http://sqlfiddle.com/#!6/63e88/4