Implementing A Basic LIKE/Wildcard Search Function In Power Query

let

    Like = (Phrase as text, Pattern as text) => 

let

    //Split pattern up into a list using % as a delimiter

    PatternList = Text.Split(Pattern, "%"),

    //if the first character in the pattern is %

    //then the first item in the list is an empty string

    StartsWithWc = (List.First(PatternList)=""),

    //if the last character in the pattern is %

    //then the last item in the list is an empty string

    EndsWithWc = (List.Last(PatternList)=""),

    //if the first character is not %

    //then we have to match the first string in the pattern

    //with the opening characters of the phrase

    StartsTest = if (StartsWithWc=false) 

       then Text.StartsWith(Phrase, List.First(PatternList)) 

       else true,

    //if the last item is not %

    //then we have to match the final string in the pattern

    //with the final characters of the phrase

    EndsText = if (EndsWithWc=false) 

       then Text.EndsWith(Phrase, List.Last(PatternList)) 

       else true,

    //now we also need to check that each string in the pattern appears 

    //in the correct order in the phrase

    //and to do this we need to declare a function PhraseFind

    PhraseFind = (Phrase as text, SearchString as list) =>

    let

     //does the first string in the pattern appear in the phrase?

     StringPos = Text.PositionOf(Phrase, SearchString{0}, Occurrence.First),

     PhraseFindOutput = 

                 if

                 //if string not find then return false 

                 (StringPos=-1) 

                 then false 

                 else if

                 //we have found the string in the pattern, and

                 //if this is the last string in the pattern, return true

                 List.Count(SearchString)=1

                 then true

                 else

                 //if it isn't the last string in the pattern

                 //test the next string in the pattern by removing

                 //the first string from the pattern list

                 //and all text up to and including the string we have found in the phrase

                 (true and

                 @PhraseFind(

                 Text.RemoveRange(Phrase, 0, StringPos + Text.Length(SearchString{0})),

                 List.RemoveRange(SearchString, 0, 1)))

     in

      PhraseFindOutput,

    //return true if we have passed all tests    

    Output = StartsTest and EndsText and PhraseFind(Phrase, PatternList) 

in

    Output

in

    Like

let

    Source = Excel.CurrentWorkbook(){[Name="Phrases"]}[Content],

    ChangedType = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Phrases", type text}}),

    InsertedCustom = Table.AddColumn(ChangedType, "Test", each Like([Phrases],"%cat%sat%mat%"))

in

    InsertedCustom