A character (*) used as a wildcard in SQL LIKE expressions to accept any string of characters. For example, the expression LIKE "*town*" returns records containing the string "town" followed by zero or more characters.
When you create a query or enter an SQL statement, use the asterisk to include all the fields that currently exist in the underlying table or query. For example, SELECT * FROM MyTable returns all fields (columns) from the table.
When issuing a query through the Microsoft� OLE DB Provider for Jet, the asterisk is no longer used as a wildcard symbol. Instead, the percent sign (%) is used as the ANSI wildcard symbol. Stored queries will not be affected, but new queries (views) that are created through the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Jet will need to use the ANSI wildcards, the percent sign (%) and the underscore character (_), to get the behavior similar to that provided by the asterisk (*) and the question mark (?). Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Jetwill translate the asterisk and the question mark as literal characters, and the returning result set will be different from going through the Microsoft Access UI or DAO.