STARTSWITH

Description

The STARTSWITH function is used to determine whether a string starts with another specified string. If the condition is met, it returns the Boolean value TRUE; otherwise, it returns FALSE. This function supports both string and binary data and is applicable to string processing and pattern matching scenarios.

Syntax

STARTSWITH(expr, startExpr)

Parameters

• expr: A STRING or BINARY expression representing the target data to be checked.
• startExpr: A STRING or BINARY expression representing the starting pattern for comparison.

Return Value

• The return value is of Boolean type (TRUE or FALSE).
• If either expr or startExpr is NULL, the function returns NULL.
• If startExpr is an empty string or empty binary data, the function returns TRUE.

Examples

Example 1: String pattern matching

SELECT STARTSWITH('SparkSQL', 'Spark') AS result;
+--------+
| result |
+--------+
| true   |
+--------+

Example 2: Case sensitivity

SELECT STARTSWITH('LakehouseSQL', 'lakehouse') AS result;
+--------+
| result |
+--------+
| false  |
+--------+

Example 3: Including NULL values

SELECT STARTSWITH('LakehouseSQL', NULL) AS result;
+--------+
| result |
+--------+
| null   |
+--------+

Example 4: Empty string or empty binary

SELECT STARTSWITH('LakehouseSQL', '') AS result;
+--------+
| result |
+--------+
| true   |
+--------+