DB-API execute params, am I missing something?

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

In message <0dcfcb4a-8844-420b-b2e2-
c8e68419774d at p6g2000pre.googlegroups.com>, John Machin wrote:

> If you need to escape % or _ in a LIKE argument, do whatever the host
> convention is.
> E.g. you are searching for text that contains literally "5% discount",
> with SQLite you could do:
> [avoiding backslashes and concomitant confusion]
>   LIKE '%5~% discount%' ESCAPE '~'
> on the command line, so using DB-API:
>   like_expr = user_input.replace("~", "~~").replace("%", "~%").replace
> (etc etc)

Sounds like an amazingly complicated, roundabout and not even reliable way 
of doing it.