MySQL 5.7

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select version();

version()

5.7.39

CREATE TABLE `user` (
  `id` INT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT NOT NULL,
  `name` VARCHAR(255),
  PRIMARY KEY(`id`)
) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE `utf8mb4_unicode_ci` ENGINE = InnoDB;
insert into `user` (`id`, `name`) values
  (1, 'john'),
  (2, 'li\\ma'); -- value with one backslash

Records: 2  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

select * from `user`
where `name` like 'li\\ma' escape '';
-- 1:1 search, no escape, expecting 1 row

id
name

select * from `user`
where `name` like 'li%\\ma' escape '';
-- the same with % (matching 0 or more bytes), expecting 1 row

id
name

2
li\ma

select * from `user`
where `name` like 'li\\ma' escape '\\';
-- backslash escapes "m", expecting 0 rows

id
name

select * from `user`
where `name` like 'li%\\ma' escape '\\';
-- the same with %, expecting 1 row

id
name

2
li\ma

select * from `user`
where `name` like 'li\\\\ma' escape '\\';
-- backslash escapes "\", expecting 1 row

id
name

2
li\ma

select * from `user`
where `name` like 'li%\\\\ma' escape '\\';
-- the same with %, expecting 1 row

id
name