Why does my LIKE statement fail with '\\_' for matching? - postgresql

Question

I have a database entry that has entries that look like this:
id | name | code_set_id
I have this particular entry that I need to find:
674272310 | raphodo/qrc_resources.py | 782732
In my rails app (2.3.8), I have a statement that evaluates to this:
SELECT * from fyles WHERE code_set_id = 782732 AND name LIKE 'raphodo/qrc\\_resources.py%';
From reading up on escaping, the above query is correct. This is supposed to correctly double escape the underscore. However this query does not find the record in the database. These queries will:
SELECT * from fyles WHERE code_set_id = 782732 AND name LIKE 'raphodo/qrc\_resources.py%';
SELECT * from fyles WHERE code_set_id = 782732 AND name LIKE 'raphodo/qrc_resources.py%';
Am I missing something here? Why is the first SQL statement not finding the correct entry?

Answer 1

A single backslash in the RHS of a LIKE escapes the following character:
9.7.1. LIKE
[...]
To match a literal underscore or percent sign without matching other characters, the respective character in pattern must be preceded by the escape character. The default escape character is the backslash but a different one can be selected by using the ESCAPE clause. To match the escape character itself, write two escape characters.
So this is a literal underscore in a LIKE pattern:
\_
and this is a single backslash followed by an "any character" pattern:
\\_
You want LIKE to see this:
raphodo/qrc\_resources.py%
PostgreSQL used to interpret C-stye backslash escapes in strings by default but no longer, now you have to use E'...' to use backslash escapes in string literals (unless you've changed the configuration options). The String Constants with C-style Escapes section of the manual covers this but the simple version is that these two:
name LIKE E'raphodo/qrc\\_resources.py%'
name LIKE 'raphodo/qrc\_resources.py%'
do the same thing as of PostgreSQL 9.1.
Presumably your Rails 2.3.8 app (or whatever is preparing your LIKE patterns) is assuming an older version of PostgreSQL than the one you're actually using. You'll need to adjust things to not double your backslashes (or prefix the pattern string literals with Es).