Unknown parameter

'The situation is similar to those described above when a column is compared using the LIKE operator to a parameter whose value is unknown in advance (dynamic parameter, join column, etc.).

In this situation, the LIKE predicate is likewise transformed into three predicates: one LIKE predicate, one predicate using the >= operator, and one predicate using the < operator. For example:

country LIKE ?

is transformed into

country LIKE ?
AND country >= InternallyGeneratedParameter
AND country < InternallyGeneratedParameter

where the InternallyGeneratedParameters are calculated at the beginning of execution based on the value of the parameter.

Note: This transformation can lead to a bad plan if the user passes in a string that begins with a wildcard or a nonselective string as the parameter. Users can work around this possibility by writing the query like this (which is not optimizable):

(country || '') LIKE ?