SQLite string contains other string query

Question

Using LIKE:

SELECT *
  FROM TABLE
 WHERE column LIKE '%cats%'  --case-insensitive

While LIKE is suitable for this case, a more general purpose solution is to use instr, which doesn't require characters in the search string to be escaped. Note: instr is available starting from Sqlite 3.7.15.

SELECT *
  FROM TABLE  
 WHERE instr(column, 'cats') > 0;

Also, keep in mind that LIKE is case-insensitive, whereas instr is case-sensitive.