LIKE operator

I'm taking a SQL Essential Training course on LinkedIn Learning, and I BRIEFLY got confused about the like operator.

I kept forgetting what was what in terms of where the % went.

I'm using SQLStudio and following this tutorial.

Here are my notes:

%[search_term]% - CONTAINS

SELECT Name, Continent FROM Country WHERE Name LIKE '%island%';

Human sentence: "Show the Name and Continent column of the Country table that CONTAINS 'island'..."

% on either side envelopes the key search word, so 'contain' here makes sense.

results that **contain* 'island' in any way*

%[search_term] - ENDS WITH

SELECT Name, Continent FROM Country WHERE Name LIKE '%island';

Human sentence: "Show me the Name and Continent column of the Country table that ENDS with 'island'..."

% only at the beginning of the search term takes the place of the rest of the text, meaning that % at the beginning means 'island' at the end.

only results that **end* with 'island'*

[search_term]% - BEGINS WITH

SELECT Name, Continent FROM Country WHERE Name LIKE 'island%';

Human sentence: "Show me the Name and Continent column of the Country table that STARTS with 'island'..."

% only at the end of the search term means 'island' is at the beginning of the Name column.

we get a big whopping zilch for this one...I guess there's no Country Name that BEGINS with the word 'island'.

But let's add one for fun to make sure it works...

Ok so now we have the fictional 'Island of the Blue Dolphins' which was now returned

For some reason it's hard for me to remember which term it searches for based on where the % is located.

Hope this helps, but mostly this is for me :)