is there obfuscation out there that is free or open source?

I have found that when I connect my VB application to an Access database and perform the query: LIKE ? + %

That special LIKE query doesn't work the same way with MySQL or SQL. I've played around in MySQL and found that: LIKE '%' & ? & '%' does just about the same thing, and actually works a little better than the access query above.

my question is, does anyone know of a good (easy) reference guide that will...