What you do is asking for a string, and then embed the result in '%' characters, as this is what you do in the sql statement (btw: where is the cursor defined?)
It is probably a better idea to construct the sql statement with the direct result of raw_input, instead of format it straight away - see below for the idea [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~ $ python Python 2.4.1 (#2, Mar 30 2005, 21:51:10) [GCC 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-8ubuntu2)] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. py> s = raw_input('Prompt: ') Prompt: exit py> print s exit py> if s == 'exit': ... print 'yes' ... yes py> t = '%%%s%%' %s py> print t %exit% py> sql = "select * from TABLE where FIELD like %s", (s) py> print sql ('select * from TABLE where FIELD like %s', 'exit') py> sql = "select * from TABLE where FIELD like '%%%s%%" % s py> print sql select * from TABLE where FIELD like '%exit% py> -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list