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

In your example, they are semantically equal and should return the same output.

However, LIKE will give you the ability of pattern matching with wildcards.

You should also note that = might give you a performance boost on some systems, so if you are for instance, searching for an exakt number, = would be the prefered method.