MySQL - If It Starts With A Number Or Special Character

Question

SELECT * 
FROM `thread` 
WHERE forumid NOT IN (1,2,3) AND IF( LEFT( title, 1) = \'#\', 1, 0)
ORDER BY title ASC

I have this query which will select

Answer 1

it's POSSIBLE you can try to cast it as a char:

CAST('#' AS CHAR)

but i don't know if this will work for the octothorpe (aka pound symbol :) ) because that's the symbol for starting a comment in MySQL