Need help with matching a range of character in a query

[nntp.lvcm.com]

The following query (modified from original to make it easier for you to
read) select all of the clients whose fisrt initial of their last name
equals a specified character ($lastInitial). It works fine for characters
A-Z but I need to know what to set $lastInitial to for it to select clients
last names that start with a different character than A-Z such as a number
or some kind of punctuation.

select * from Clients
where left(lastName,1) = $lastInitial
order by lastName ASC

Thank you in advance

Jeremy Shovan

[Bill Karwin]

nntp.lvcm.com wrote:

I need to know what to set $lastInitial to for it to select clients
last names that start with a different character than A-Z such as a number
or some kind of punctuation.

Sounds like you need a regular expression:

select * from Clients
where lastName REGEXP '^[^A-Z]'
order by lastName ASC

Another method, more readable but longer, woudl be to use use NOT IN
predicate:

select * from Clients
where left(lastName,1) NOT IN ('A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F', 'G', 'H',
'I', 'J', 'K', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'O', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'S', 'T', 'U', 'V',
'W', 'X', 'Y', 'Z')
order by lastName ASC

Regards,
Bill K.