A LIKE predicate in which a column is compared to a character string that begins with a character constant (not a wildcard) is transformed into three predicates: one predicate that uses the LIKE operator, one that uses the >= operator, and one that uses the < operator. For example:

country LIKE 'Ch%i%'

becomes

country LIKE 'Ch%i%'
AND country >= 'Ch'
AND country < 'Ci'

When the character string begins with one more character constants and ends with a single "%", the first LIKE clause is eliminated. For example:

country LIKE 'Ch%'

becomes

country >= 'Ch'
AND country < 'Ci'