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Databases

Sean Loke
Sean Loke
14,659 Points
Posted by Sean Loke
Sean Loke
14,659 Points

STAGE 3: PRACTICE MOVIES BEGINNING WITH ALIEN AND WILL OF ACTORS

Q1. Find all movies where the title begins with Alien

SELECT * FROM movies WHERE title LIKE "%Alien%";

produces 2 results. Is this correct?

Q2. Find all actors whos first name starts with Will

SELECT * FROM actors WHERE name LIKE "Will%";

I can't seem to get data which specifically has Will in it. What do I have to add to my code?

Thanks!

2 Answers

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,248 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,248 Points

Can you post a link to the page?

Without seeing the database, I'm just guessing that perhaps the column name you want might be first_name instead of just name?

In the first query, for something that "begins with" you would use the wildcard ("%") after the word, but not before. Like what you did for the second query.

Sean Loke
Sean Loke
14,659 Points
Sean Loke
Sean Loke
14,659 Points

https://teamtreehouse.com/library/sql-basics/finding-the-data-you-want/review-practice-with-sql-playgrounds

Worried about the set of data which my code is producing is not fulfilling the criteria of the question.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,248 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,248 Points

Now that I've seen the playground tasks, it looks like your initial actors query is correct for the task "Find all actors whos first name starts with Will".

But if you want actors whos first name is Will, then as Simon Says (:smile: I couldn't resist) you add the space before the wildcard.

Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points
Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points

The irritating thing about that game is that i was never appointed simon. I guess they were concerned with my existing dangerous tendencies toward meglomania. A preschooler drunk on power is an ugly thing.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,248 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,248 Points

But doesn't that describe nearly all preschoolers? :smiling_imp:

Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points
Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points

I tried using the playground at https://teamtreehouse.com/library/sql-basics/finding-the-data-you-want/review-practice-with-sql-playgrounds and I get a bunch of results using:

Select * from actors where name like "will%"

Beginning with alien (case may not matter using like):

SELECT * FROM movies WHERE title LIKE "alien%"

yes 2 is the right answer, you can view the full result set for movies via the playground. Click on movies under the table menu on the left hand side (not the stack icon, which produces a summary of columns). It's a very small set.

Sean Loke
Sean Loke
14,659 Points
Sean Loke
Sean Loke
14,659 Points

For Q1, producing the result "aliens" is fine?

For Q2, im worried im wrong because the set of names which show up include william and willy. What will be the code to specifically produce a set of first names of just Will?

Thanks!

Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points
Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points

as i said you should be able to see the complete movie table, and it contains alien and aliens (2 applicable records). To get "Will", maybe try "Will %" - that is, include the space. Update: ok, i tried it. If you want will, but not william:

select * from actors where name LIKE "will %"

(nb: best practice would be to capitalize the keywords)

Sean Loke
Sean Loke
14,659 Points
Sean Loke
Sean Loke
14,659 Points

Thank you for the help!