LIKE( )
Returns true if a specified string matches a specified skeleton string.
Syntax
LIKE(<skeleton expC>, <expC>)
<skeleton expC>
A string containing a combination of characters and wildcards. The wildcards are ? and *.
<expC>
The string to compare to the skeleton string.
Description
Use LIKE( ) to compare one string to another. The <skeleton expC> argument contains wildcard characters and represents a pattern; the <expC> argument is compared to this pattern. LIKE( ) returns true if <expC> is a string that matches <skeleton expC>. To compare the phonetic similarity between two strings rather than the character-by-character similarity, use DIFFERENCE( ).
Use the wildcard characters ? and * to form the pattern for <skeleton expC>. An asterisk (*) stands for any number of characters, including zero characters. The question mark (?) stands for any single character. Both wildcards can appear anywhere and more than once in <skeleton expC>. Wildcard characters in <skeleton expC> can stand for uppercase or lowercase letters.
If * or ? appears in <expC>, they are interpreted as literal, not wildcard, characters, as shown in the following example.
? LIKE( "a*d", "abcd" ) // Displays true
? LIKE( "a*d", "aBCd" ) // Displays true
? LIKE( "abcd", "a*d" ) // Displays false
LIKE( ) is case-sensitive. Use UPPER( ) or LOWER( ) for case-insensitive comparisons with LIKE( ). LIKE( ) returns true if both arguments are empty strings. LIKE( ) returns false if one argument is empty and the other isn't.