MySQL and %

Anyone here who can tel me what I'm doing wrong here with the query.

The folowing query works

PHP:

$rubID = "16602270";
$query_rsFilesRSS = "select productID FROM rssImport WHERE productID LIKE $rubID";

For some reason the query below gives me a "Query was empty" error.

PHP:

$rubID = "%16602270%";
$query_rsFilesRSS = "select productID FROM rssImport WHERE productID LIKE $rubID";

I get the same "Query was empty" error when I use the following query

PHP:

$rubID = "16602270";
$query_rsFilesRSS = "select productID FROM rssImport WHERE productID LIKE %$rubID%";

Again. The 1st query works fine, but will only show an exact match on $rubID.
I want to use the % for wildcard searches.

 

Try

PHP:

$rubID = "16602270";
$query_rsFilesRSS = "select productID FROM rssImport WHERE productID LIKE '%".$rubID."%'";