Thanks,
I had not thought of of it this way.!
you are so right.

Back to the code... and thanks so much for looking.... I just needed put me back in a correct direction.

>This may seem like a simple question, but...
>
>Can you design the routine that creates the SELECT to put it in the proper format to begin with and avoid having a parsing routine to process after the fact?
>
>By forcing the wildcard to be at the end of the string, you're actually limiting the capability of the wildcard. It's possible to use LIKE "%son" or LIKE "J%son". So, the location of the ending quote can't be predicted.
>
>In any case, if you're processing a literal value from the user, the generator should surround that value with quotes.
>
> Jay