Select all where [first letter starts with B]

Question

This is a follow up question to my previous one. I want to write a MYSQL statement that echoes every entry that starts with letter B.

Function.php

function getCategory() { $query = mysql_query("SELECT author FROM lyrics WHERE author [starts with letter B]") or die(mysql_error()); while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($query)) { ?>     <p><a href="##"><?= $row['author']; ?></a></p>     <?php } 

Category.php?category=b

<?php include 'includes/header.php' ?> <?php getCategory(); ?> <?php include 'includes/footer.php' ?> 

Like that I guess. And then one for every letter of the alphabet, and one with misc (numbers etc)

Answer 1

SELECT author FROM lyrics WHERE author LIKE 'B%'; 

Make sure you have an index on author, though!

Answer 2

This will work for MYSQL

SELECT Name FROM Employees WHERE Name REGEXP '^[B].*$' 

In this REGEXP stands for regular expression

and

this is for T-SQL

SELECT Name FROM Employees WHERE Name LIKE '[B]%'