Question

I have a table in which some have names with a leading space and some names don’t have it.

I have a variable $name which I have to match with a name in table, this $name doesn’t have a leading space. How should I write my query in this case?

Answer 1

Trim the leading and trailing space on each value.

SELECT *
FROM tableName
WHERE TRIM(colName) = '$name'

TRIM trims leading and trailing
LTRIM trims leading space
RTRIM trims trailing space