[ ] (Wildcard - Character(s) to Match) (Transact-SQL)

Matches any single character within the specified range or set that is specified between the brackets. These wildcard characters can be used in string comparisons that involve pattern matching, such as LIKE and PATINDEX. For more information, see Pattern Matching in Search Conditions.

Examples

The following example uses the [] operator to find the IDs and names of all Adventure Works employees who have addresses with a four-digit postal code.

USE AdventureWorks;
GO 
SELECT e.EmployeeID, c.FirstName, c.LastName, a.PostalCode
FROM HumanResources.Employee AS e
    INNER JOIN Person.Contact AS c ON e.ContactID = c.ContactID
INNER JOIN HumanResources.EmployeeAddress AS ea ON e.EmployeeID = ea.EmployeeID
    INNER JOIN Person.Address AS a ON a.AddressID = ea.AddressID
WHERE a.PostalCode LIKE '[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]';
GO

Here is the result set:

EmployeeID      FirstName      LastName      PostalCode
----------      ---------      ---------     ----------
290             Lynn           Tsoflias      3000

See Also

Reference

LIKE (Transact-SQL)
PATINDEX (Transact-SQL)
_ (Wildcard - Match One Character) (Transact-SQL)
% (Wildcard - Character(s) to Match) (Transact-SQL)
[^] (Wildcard - Character(s) Not to Match) (Transact-SQL)

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance