Explain the LIKE function in SQL and how it is used for data searching.

The SQL operator LIKE is used to search for strings that match a specified pattern. It is often used in the WHERE clause to filter data by partial matching.

Main wildcard characters:

• % — matches any number of any characters (including zero).
• _ — matches exactly one of any character.

Example of usage:

SELECT * FROM Employees
WHERE Name LIKE 'A%';

This query will select all employees whose names start with the letter "A".

Another example:

SELECT * FROM Products
WHERE Code LIKE '_123%';

Here, products are selected where the second, third, and fourth characters are "123", and the first can be any character.

Thus, LIKE allows flexible pattern matching, which is useful when working with text fields.