A LIKE predicate searches character string literals for pattern matches. The LIKE predicate is case sensitive; it considers uppercase and lowercase forms of the same character to be different characters. Because the LIKE predicate is case sensitive, searches for uppercase characters do not include lowercase characters in any Multinational Character Set. The reverse is also true. For example, LIKE "Ç" will retrieve a different set of records than LIKE "ç". The LIKE predicate is sensitive to diacritical markings used in any Multinational Character Set. Therefore, a matches a, but neither matches á, à, ä, Á, À, Â and so on. In Spanish, ch and ll are treated as if they are unique single letters. For example, if a domain is defined with the collating sequence SPANISH, then LIKE "c%" will not retrieve the word char but will retrieve the word cat. The LIKE predicate has this form: like-predicate = ---> value-expr -+------+-> LIKE -----> <pattern> + +> NOT + | +--------------------------------------------+ +-+-+------------------------------+-+---> | +-> ESCAPE <escape-character> -+ | | +-> IGNORE CASE ---------------+ | +----------------<-----------------+ pattern = ----> char-value-expr ----> escape-character = ----> char-value-expr ------------> SQL interprets the value-expr argument as a character string and compares it to the pattern. The pattern must be a value expression with a text data type. Within the pattern, the percent sign (%), underscore (_), and escape characters have special meaning. o The percent sign represents any string of characters, including no characters at all. The percent sign is a wildcard character. o The underscore represents any single character. o An escape character causes SQL to interpret a wildcard character as itself to search for character strings containing the wildcard character. The value of the escape character must be 1 character in length. The following table explains the valid sequences allowed for escape characters. Table 7 Escape Character Sequences Character in Pattern Character Matched % any string _ any character escape-character % % escape-character _ _ escape-character escape-character escape-character You can only specify the percent sign, underscore, or the escape-character itself. Any other character is invalid and an error is returned. All other characters represent themselves.