General Examples
This condition is true for all last_name values beginning with "Ma":

last_name LIKE 'Ma%'

All of these last_name values make the condition true:

Mallin, Markle, Marlow, Marvins, Marvis, Matos

Case is significant, so last_name values beginning with "MA", "ma", and "mA" make the condition false.

Consider this condition:

last_name LIKE 'SMITH_'

This condition is true for these last_name values:

SMITHE, SMITHY, SMITHS

This condition is false for 'SMITH', since the special character "_" must match exactly one character of the lastname value.

ESCAPE Clause Example
You can include the actual characters "%" or "_" in the pattern by using the ESCAPE clause, which identifies the escape character. If the escape character appears in the pattern before the character "%" or "_" then Oracle interprets this character literally in the pattern, rather than as a special pattern matching character.

To search for employees with the pattern 'A_B' in their name:

SELECT last_name
FROM employees
WHERE last_name LIKE '%A\_B%' ESCAPE '\';

The ESCAPE clause identifies the backslash (\) as the escape character. In the pattern, the escape character precedes the underscore (_). This causes Oracle to interpret the underscore literally, rather than as a special pattern matching character.