G-3195 – Always use wildcards in a LIKE clause.

Using `like` without at least one wildcard (`%` or `_`) is unclear to a maintainer whether a wildcard is forgotten or it is meant as equality test. A common antipattern is also to forget that an underscore is a wildcard, so using `like` instead of equal can return unwanted rows. If the `char` datatype is involved, there is also the danger of `like` not using blank padded comparison where equal will. Depending on use case, you should either remember at least one wildcard or use normal equality operator.

Tags: SQL.

Quality area: Maintainability. Severity: Blocker. Fixing time: Local-medium.