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Using _ for Single Character Matching in SFMC SQL LIKE Operator

 🔹 The _ wildcard in SFMC SQL matches exactly ONE character.

  • Unlike %, which matches multiple characters, _ only replaces a single character.

  • It’s useful when you need to find values of a fixed format or specific character positions.


1. _ in Fixed-Length Patterns: _ ensures only one character is replaced at a time.

Since my Source DE did not have two character I used 4 character (Pune: P___)


2. _ in Email Pattern Matching: You can use _ to detect formatting errors in emails.


  • %@% ensures that "@" appears somewhere in the email.


Question: When I use this filter, it takes all the email address from the source DE so is it not working?

If I use __@gmail.com, it takes only the @gmail.com to target DE but the _ does not define the number of letters before @

3. _ in Phone Number Validation

  • '___-___-____' → Ensures that the phone number follows the exact format of 3-3-4 digits.

  • It excludes numbers that are too short, too long, or missing dashes.


Since the Phone number stored in my Source DE was in format __________ it did not work when i used the format ___-___-____. So the format I use in the Automation filter should match my source DE for it to appear in target DE

Incorrect Format as per my Source DE:


Added with correct Format:





4. _ in Product Code Matching


  • 'A___' → Matches values that start with "A" followed by exactly three characters.

  • It excludes A98 (too short) and A1X3 (includes a letter in place of a number).


_ is helpful when product codes follow a fixed structure. (Need to be followed in the same format as source DE. For example if my source DE has a Properties named "ABC DEF", I have to enter the underscore in the same format; '___ ___' and if its ABCDE it should be '_____'. Same number of underscore and same amount of spaces.







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