using like

ok, sorry for conjestion, but i figured it out: select autoinv, company
from table1 where company like '%Alice%'; -- that works in psql. but how
do i substitute "Alice" with a variable name??

i'm trying to query my database (6.4.2 through odbc ms access) to find all
records matching a "like" statement. from psql i am trying this -- select
autoinv, company from table1 where company like 'Alice'; -- but it doesn't
work! i could run whatever works in psql as a passthrough query in
access97, if i could get it to work in psql! i'd expect the query to pull
values of company that = "Alice w." "Alice Higgins" "Alicexxxxxxx"
"xxxxAlice..xxx", and you get the idea.

TIA for any help! jt