SQL ILIKE
Postgres's case-insensitive version of LIKE — same wildcards, no case sensitivity.
What & Why
ILIKE is a Postgres-specific extension that works exactly like LIKE, except it ignores letter case entirely.
See How It Works
BUSINESS QUESTION
Match the campaign name 'Spring Launch' even when the search text uses uppercase letters.
| id | name | channel | spend | start_date | end_date | status | target_segment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spring Launch | google_ads | 55000.00 | 2024-01-15 | 2024-03-31 | active | smb |
| 2 | Retention Webinar | 45000.00 | 2024-02-10 | 2024-04-15 | active | enterprise | |
| 3 | Finance Retargeting | 50000.00 | 2024-03-12 | 2024-05-31 | active | enterprise | |
| 4 | Enterprise Search | google_ads | 60000.00 | 2024-04-01 | 2024-06-30 | active | enterprise |
EXAMPLE QUERY
-- plain LIKE is case-sensitive and does not match
SELECT name FROM marketing.campaigns WHERE name LIKE 'SPRING LAUNCH';
-- ILIKE ignores letter case and matches the row
SELECT name FROM marketing.campaigns WHERE name ILIKE 'SPRING LAUNCH';RESULT — ILIKE version
| name |
|---|
| Spring Launch |
ILIKE matches the stored mixed-case campaign name.
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