What's the difference between “LIKE” and “=” in SQL?

Question

Is there any difference between:

SELECT * FROM users WHERE username=\"davyjones\"

and

SELECT * FROM users WHERE username LI         


        

Answer 1

LIKE allows partial matching / use of wildcards, while = checks for exact matches.

For example

SELECT * FROM test WHERE field LIKE '%oom';

Will return rows where field value is any of the following:

Zoom, Boom, Loom, Groom