Sql query to select all names that start with a given letter without like operator

We will use the following Students table for this example


SQL Script to create the Students table

Create table Students

(

     ID int primary key identity,

     Name nvarchar(50),

     Gender nvarchar(50),

     Salary int

)

Go

Insert into Students values ('Mark', 'Male', 60000)

Insert into Students values ('Steve', 'Male', 45000)

Insert into Students values ('James', 'Male', 70000)

Insert into Students values ('Mike', 'Male', 45000)

Insert into Students values ('Mary', 'Female', 30000)

Insert into Students values ('Valarie', 'Female', 35000)

Insert into Students values ('John', 'Male', 80000)

Go

Interview question : Write a query to select all student rows whose Name starts with letter 'M' without using the LIKE operator

The output should be as shown below


If the interviewer has not mentioned not to use LIKE operator, we would have written the query using the LIKE operator as shown below.

SELECT * FROM Students WHERE Name LIKE 'M%'

We can use any one of the following 3 SQL Server functions, to achieve exactly the same thing
CHARINDEX
LEFT
SUBSTRING

The following 3 queries retrieve all student rows whose Name starts with letter 'M'. Notice none of the queries are using the LIKE operator.

SELECT * FROM Students WHERE CHARINDEX('M',Name) = 1

SELECT * FROM Students WHERE LEFT(Name, 1) = 'M'

SELECT * FROM Students WHERE SUBSTRING(Name, 1, 1) = 'M'