<p>(Note: This is for MySQL's SQL, not SQL Server.)</p>

<p>I have a database column with values like "abc def GHI JKL". I want to write a WHERE clause that includes a case-insensitive test for any word that begins with a specific letter. For example, that example would test true for the letters a,c,g,j because there's a 'word' beginning with each of those letters. The application is for a search that offers to find records that have only words beginning with the specified letter. Also note that there is not a fulltext index for this table.</p>

Check the
Pattern Matching
and
Regular Expressions
sections of the MySQL Reference Manual.