How do you properly prepare a %LIKE% SQL statement?
The $wpdb->esc_like function exists in WordPress because the regular database escaping does not escape % and _ characters. This means you can add them in your arguments to wpdb::prepare() without problem. This is also what I see in the core WordPress code: $wpdb->prepare(” AND $wpdb->usermeta.meta_key = ‘{$wpdb->prefix}capabilities’ AND $wpdb->usermeta.meta_value LIKE %s”, ‘%’ . $this->role . … Read more