When we use xfODBC to retrieve data from our ISAM files, we can use multiple wildcards to retrieve only the records we need.

We want to perform the same function with the select class.

Within xfODBC we can say 'select * from item where description like '%BLUE%MET%'. This retrieves records that have for example, "FORD BLUE METALLIC" in their description, but not records that have "FORD METALLIC BLUE" in their description, which is what happens if you use the select class 'contains' of 'BLUE' and 'MET'.

The only way we can achieve the desired result is to filter out the records that the select class returns.

This is means we may get back hundreds of records that we don't want, compared to the small handful of records we do want, which complicates the code in the program as well as wasting time and network resources.