In SQL, the LIKE operator is used to search for a specified pattern in a column. The double percentage signs (%%) are not directly used as operators in SQL. Instead, the % symbol is used as a wildcard character in combination with the LIKE operator to match any sequence of characters (including zero characters) in a search pattern.

Here’s how the LIKE operator works with the % wildcard:

• %: Matches any sequence of characters (including none).
• _: Matches a single character.

For example, if you want to find all rows where the “name” column starts with “John”, you can use:

1. SELECT * FROM users WHERE name LIKE ‘John%’;

If you want to find all rows where the “email” column contains “example.com”, you can use:

2. SELECT * FROM users WHERE email LIKE ‘%example.com%’;

And if you want to find all rows where the “username” column is exactly four characters long, you can use:

3. SELECT * FROM users WHERE username LIKE '____'; -- Four underscores

In this case, each underscore _ represents a single character, so ____ will match usernames that are exactly four characters long.