data67,

Why would you want some default behaviour of the LIKE? If you look in the SQL::Abstract doc's you will find:

But, this is probably not what you want in this case (look at it). So 
+the hashref can also contain multiple pairs, in which case it is expa
+nded into an AND of its elements:

    my %where  = (
        user   => 'nwiger',
        status => { '!=', 'completed', -not_like => 'pending%' }
    );

    # Or more dynamically, like from a form
    $where{user} = 'nwiger';
    $where{status}{'!='} = 'completed';
    $where{status}{'-not_like'} = 'pending%';

    # Both generate this
    $stmt = "WHERE user = ? AND status != ? AND status NOT LIKE ?";
    @bind = ('nwiger', 'completed', 'pending%');
[download]

Which indicates that you need to provide your own wild-cards. The module will HELP you create complex SQL, but it doesn't do absolutely everyting for you. In time you may in fact be thanksful it works this way. I am :)

jdtoronto