I hope i understood question. Why using wild card at all? Instead of wildcard, why not NULL as default for parametars $P{CR_DEPT} and $P{CR_DEPT} and in query write something like (or NVL for oracle): CREATE_DEPT = coalesce($P{CR_DEPT}, CREATE_DEPT) AND CURRENT_DEPT = coalesce($P{CR_DEPT}, CURRENT_DEPTT) Alternative would be something like ....($P{CR_DEPT}=wildcard or CREATE_DEPT=$P{CR_DEPT}).... but it looks wrong (and wildcard must not be something that can be found in CREATE_DEPT or CURRENT_DEPT values in db table)...