wildcard-character-s-not-to-match-transact-sql.md

title	(Wildcard - Character(s) Not to Match) (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs
ms.custom
ms.date	12/06/2016
ms.prod	sql-non-specified
ms.reviewer
ms.suite
ms.technology	database-engine
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ms.topic	language-reference
applies_to	Azure SQL Database SQL Server (starting with 2008)
f1_keywords	wildcard [^]_TSQL [^] Not Match
dev_langs	TSQL
helpviewer_keywords	wildcard characters [SQL Server] [^] (wildcard - character(s) not to match)
ms.assetid	b970038f-f4e7-4a5d-96f6-51e3248c6aef
caps.latest.revision	36
author	BYHAM
ms.author	rickbyh
manager	jhubbard

(Wildcard - Character(s) Not to Match) (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDEtsql-appliesto-ss2008-asdb-xxxx-xxx_md]

Matches any single character that is not within the range or set specified between the square brackets.

Examples

The following example uses the [^] operator to find all the people in the Contact table who have first names that start with Al and have a third letter that is not the letter a.

-- Uses AdventureWorks  
  
SELECT FirstName, LastName  
FROM Person.Person  
WHERE FirstName LIKE 'Al[^a]%'  
ORDER BY FirstName;  

See Also

LIKE (Transact-SQL)
PATINDEX (Transact-SQL)
% (Wildcard - Character(s) to Match) (Transact-SQL)
[ ] (Wildcard - Character(s) to Match)
_ (Wildcard - Match One Character)