Difference between LIKE and = in MYSQL?

Question

What\'s the difference between

SELECT foo FROM bar WHERE foobar=\'$foo\'

AND

SELECT foo FROM bar WHERE foobar LIKE\'$foo\'         


        

Answer 1

I think in term of speed = is faster than LIKE. As stated, = does an exact match and LIKE can use a wildcard if needed.

I always use = sign whenever I know the values of something. For example

select * from state where state='PA'

Then for likes I use things like:

select * from person where first_name like 'blah%' and last_name like 'blah%'

If you use Oracle Developers Tool, you can test it with Explain to determine the impact on the database.