How to search a column for an exact string in MySQL?

For exact string, you need to use wildcard ‘%’ with LIKE operator −

select *from yourTableName where binary yourColumnName LIKE '%yourStringValue%';

Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable(
   Name varchar(20)
);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.93 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Chris');
Query OK, 1 row affected (1.11 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('John');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.38 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Adam');
Query OK, 1 row affected (1.19 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('JOHN');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.60 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('ADAM');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.43 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output −

+-------+
| Name  |
+-------+
| Chris |
| John  |
| Adam  |
| JOHN  |
| ADAM  |
+-------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to search a column for an exact string in SQL −

mysql> select *from DemoTable where binary Name LIKE '%JOHN%';

This will produce the following output −

+------+
| Name |
+------+
| JOHN |
+------+
1 row in set (0.09 sec)