title	description	ms.reviewer	ms.topic	ms.date
The case-insensitive !startswith string operators	Learn how to use the !startswith string operator to filter records for data that doesn't start with a case-insensitive search string.	alexans	reference	03/12/2023

!startswith operator

Filters a record set for data that doesn't start with a case-insensitive search string.

Performance tips

When possible, use the case-sensitive !startswith_cs.

T | where column !startswith (expression)

Name	Type	Required	Description
T	`string`	✔️	The tabular input whose records are to be filtered.
column	`string`	✔️	The column by which to filter.
expression	scalar	✔️	The scalar or literal expression for which to search.

Rows in T for which the predicate is true.

[!div class="nextstepaction"] Run the query

StormEvents
| summarize event_count=count() by State
| where State !startswith "i"
| where event_count > 2000
| project State, event_count

Output