Looking for a pattern within a string

If you want to search for a pattern in a string, PATINDEX() is the function you are looking for. This function returns the starting position of the first occurrence of the pattern within the string.

The syntax is: PATINDEX('%pattern%', expression)

pattern	match
%	any string of zero or more characters
_	any single character
[]	any single character within the range specified in brackets

In this exercise, you are going to use the voters table to look at information about the voters whose names follow a specified pattern.

1
Write a query to select the voters whose first name contains the letters "rr".
2
Write a query to select the voters whose first name starts with "C" and has "r" as the third letter.
3
Select the voters whose first name contains an "a" followed by other letters, then a "w", followed by other letters.
4
Write a query to select the voters whose first name contains one of these letters: "x", "w" or "q".

Exercise

Looking for a pattern within a string

Instructions 1/4