Question

tablename - names
values    - %dfdf
            hhhh
            %fgfg

Now if i want to get all the names starting from %, how to do it ?

Answer 1

You can use LIKE to test if a value starts with a certain substring. Since % is a special character it must be escaped.

To test for literal instances of a wildcard character, precede it by the escape character. If you do not specify the ESCAPE character, “\” is assumed.

Try this:

SELECT `values`
FROM names
WHERE `values` LIKE '\%%'

See it working online: sqlfiddle