Wildcards

• * Evaluates to zero or more characters.

     'HAP*'    all strings that begin with HAP
     '*.'      all strings that end with a period
     '*NOT*'   all strings that contain the substsring NOT
  

• ? Evaluates to a single character.

     '???F*'   all strings with F as the fourth character
  

• \ Specifies the next character as a literal character.

     '*\?'     all strings that end with a question mark
     '*\**'    all strings that contain an asterisk
  

• [] Specifies valid values for a single character.

     '[A-N]*'  all strings that begin with a letter A to N
     '[A-NS]*' all strings that begin with a letter A to N, or S
     '[^A-N]*' all strings that DO NOT begin with a letter A to N
  

The quotes that surround the search string will be supplied automatically.

Caution:
Using an initial wildcard in a comparison string often causes the query to take longer to execute. This is because indexes cannot be used, so every row must be searched.