Does '%sale%' match the empty row?

Question

Accepted Answer

% matches zero or more characters, so '%sale%' requires the substring 'sale' to appear anywhere in the value. Row 2 ('sale') matches because 'sale' is present. Row 1 is an empty string - there is no 'sale' substring in it, so it does not match. The 'zero or more' part means % can match nothing at all on either side, not that the entire pattern is optional.