The `ILIKE` operator is a powerful tool for performing case-insensitive string comparisons in SQL. Unlike the standard `LIKE` operator, which is case-sensitive, `ILIKE` performs matching without regard to the capitalization of characters. This is particularly useful in applications where you need to find data regardless of whether the user enters it in uppercase or lowercase. For example, searching for "apple" should return results even if the data is stored as "Apple" or "aPPLE".The `ILIKE` operator works similarly to the `LIKE` operator, but with the added benefit of case-insensitive matching. You specify a pattern using wildcards like `%` (matches any sequence of characters) and `_` (matches any single character). The `ILIKE` operator is often used in conjunction with `WHERE` clauses to filter data based on these patterns.One key advantage of `ILIKE` is its ability to handle different character encodings and collation schemes. The specific behavior of `ILIKE` can depend on the database system you're using, but generally, it's designed to be robust across various character sets. This means that if your database stores data in different languages or character sets, `ILIKE` can still perform the case-insensitive matching correctly.In summary, `ILIKE` is a valuable operator for case-insensitive string matching in SQL. It simplifies queries that need to find data regardless of capitalization, making your applications more user-friendly and flexible.