Databases often treat % and _ as wildcard characters. Pattern-match queries in the SQL repository (such as CONTAINS, STARTS WITH, or ENDS WITH), assume that a query that includes % or _ is intended as a literal search including those characters and is not intended to include wildcard characters. The query generated therefore uses an escape character in front of the characters % and _ in pattern-match queries. One exception applies: a pattern-match query can be used to simulate a text search query; in that case wildcards should be passed through.

You can disable this behavior by setting the escapeWildcards property of the SQL Repository component to false.

The escape character is \ (backslash) by default. You can set a different escape character through the wildcardEscapeCharacter property of the SQL repository component.