# Related Sites > SQL Course >  why does LIKE not like spaces?

## Chris Tolworthy

I'm at the end of lesson 5, experimenting with "select". I don't understand how SQL reads spaces.

This works: 


```
select myColumn from myTable where myColumn LIKE 'abc def';
```

But this does not work: 


```
select myColumn from myTable where myColumn LIKE '%abc def%';
```

What am I doing wrong? Thanks for any tips.

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