# LIKE Patterns and Complexity

## TL;DR

This paper explores the expressive capabilities and computational complexity of the LIKE operator in SQL, providing insights into its theoretical limitations and practical implications.

## Contribution

It offers a detailed analysis of the LIKE operator's expressive power and complexity, which was previously not thoroughly understood.

## Key findings

- Characterizes the complexity class of LIKE pattern matching
- Identifies limitations in expressiveness for certain pattern classes
- Provides theoretical bounds for LIKE operator's computational requirements

## Abstract

We investigate the expressive power and complexity questions for the LIKE operator in SQL.