How to use % while writing a query in django using object.raw() function

Question

I am a beginner in django , How to write a raw query in django which is similar to

"select * from table where column1 like '%a%'"

I am getting an error

"not enough arguments for format string"

when i just use "select * from table where column1 like 'a' " . it is working .

i am trying to search for all the column1 words which have an "a" some where in them . — Teja Reddy
– Teja Reddy, Commented Apr 11, 2016 at 12:42
example : i want to search for all peoples whose name starts with a and have "a" as a character in their names then in raw sql i would write a query like "select * from names_tables where names like '%a%' or names like 'a%' " . — Teja Reddy
– Teja Reddy, Commented Apr 11, 2016 at 12:45
I tried using an escape character \ before % it is still giving the same error — Teja Reddy
– Teja Reddy, Commented Apr 11, 2016 at 12:45

Alasdair · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-11 12:53:03Z

2

You need to double the percent signs, otherwise they are treated as placeholders.

"select * from table where column1 like '%%a%%'"

When you use raw sql, you can use %s for placeholders, for example:

Person.objects.raw('SELECT * FROM myapp_person WHERE last_name = %s', [lname])

That means that if you want a literal percent sign, you have to use %%. The Django docs on executing custom SQL directly has an example of this.

answered Apr 11, 2016 at 12:42

Alasdair

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1 Comment

Thanks it worked !! but can u tell me the reason behind the working . it is some special escape character ?