Like %?% doesn't work as part of StringBuilder SQL query

Question

Have following String built SQL query:

    StringBuilder querySelect = new StringBuilder("select * from messages ");
    StringBuilder queryWhere = new StringBuilder("where msg_id=?");

        if (fileRSVO.getFileName()!= null){
            queryWhere.append("and descr LIKE %?% ");
        }
querySelect.append(queryWhere);

    List<Map<String, Object>> list = getJdbcTemplate().queryForList(querySelect.toString(), params.toArray()); 
    ...

The problem is in this part:

queryWhere.append("and descr LIKE %?% ")

LIKE doesn't work.
Checked in debug - it's added to all query.
Should it be single quoted or some other trick?

thanks.

EDITED

tried single quotes:queryWhere.append("and descr LIKE '%?%' ") doesn't work

here is debug string:

select * from messages where msg_id=? and descr LIKE '%?%' 

Answer 1

Assuming that the query is run using a PreparedStatement, the problem is probably that queryForList calls setString(1, 'some descr'). This would resolve the SQL to "... and descr LIKE %'some descr'%".

Try altering the code to:

queryWhere.append("and descr LIKE ?");
...
.setString(1, "%some descr%")