EasySQL challenge #41WHERE

Find Emails Containing a Word with LIKE

Return the users whose email address contains gmail.

The challenge runs on the SQLabHub practice database (SQLite) and uses the users table. You can solve it in the browser, with nothing to install.

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The task

Find users whose email contains gmail.

A correct answer returns 28 rows with 10 columns: id, first_name, last_name, email, phone, city, country, created_at, status, is_premium.

Tables used in this challenge

users 150 rows

id INTEGER (PK) · first_name TEXT · last_name TEXT · email TEXT · phone TEXT · city TEXT · country TEXT · created_at TEXT · status TEXT · is_premium INTEGER

First 3 rows of the users table
idfirst_namelast_nameemailphonecitycountrycreated_atstatusis_premium
1JenniferTorresjennifer.torres57@icloud.com+1-263-376-2371HoustonCanada2024-04-13active0
2DonnaAdamsdonna.adams52@gmail.com+1-753-780-6670Fort WorthCanada2020-09-15inactive0
3KennethYoungkenneth.young94@proton.me+1-440-743-9503AustinUSA2023-09-05active0

The first rows of each table are shown. See how all the tables relate on the database schema page.

Expected output

Expected output of the challenge
idfirst_namelast_nameemailphonecitycountrycreated_atstatusis_premium
2DonnaAdamsdonna.adams52@gmail.com+1-753-780-6670Fort WorthCanada2020-09-15inactive0
16DonaldHilldonald.hill17@gmail.com+1-940-468-2833San DiegoUSA2023-10-26inactive1
18SharonWrightsharon.wright26@gmail.com+1-990-974-3539AustinAustralia2019-07-14active0
22AnthonyHernandezanthony.hernandez69@gmail.com+1-353-701-6153PhoenixUSA2020-05-02active1
23MariaClarkmaria.clark80@gmail.com+1-570-579-5060Los AngelesUSA2022-03-19active0

First 5 of 28 rows. This is the output of the model solution on the practice database. The task does not fix a sort order, so your rows may come back in a different order.

What you practise

  • Returning every column of a table with SELECT *
  • Filtering rows with a WHERE condition
  • Matching text patterns with LIKE and the % wildcard

Hint and approach

Try the challenge first. Open these only when you need them.

Show the hint

Use LIKE

Show the step-by-step approach

How the model solution is built, in the order the database evaluates it:

  1. Read from the users table.
  2. Filter in WHERE: keep the rows where email contains "gmail" (a LIKE pattern with the % wildcard).
  3. Return every column with SELECT *.

Model solution

Checking your session…

What to watch for

% matches any run of characters, including none, so %gmail% finds the text anywhere. In SQLite, LIKE ignores case for ASCII letters; in PostgreSQL it does not, and you would use ILIKE.

  • LIKE. LIKE without a wildcard is just an equality test. Forgetting the % on one side turns "contains" into "starts with" or "ends with".
  • WHERE. WHERE is evaluated before the SELECT list, so it cannot use a column alias defined there or the result of an aggregate.
  • SELECT *. SELECT * is fine for exploring, but its output changes whenever a column is added to the table. Queries that feed a report should name their columns.
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Same technique, other tables

More practice on this pattern with different columns:

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