Character string without wildcards

A LIKE predicate is transformed into a predicate that uses the = operator (and a NOT LIKE predicate is transformed into one that uses <>) when the character string does not contain any wildcards.

For example,

country LIKE 'Chile'

becomes

country = 'Chile'

and

country NOT LIKE 'Chile'

becomes

country <> 'Chile'

Predicates that use the = operator are optimizable. Predicates that use the <> operator are sargable.

Related reference
Character string beginning with constant
Unknown parameter