1. A computer apparatus comprising: at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a database residing in the memory having a record with a beginning position; a query that specifies a sequential string search of the record; a query optimizer that optimizes the query by determining a starting position other than the beginning position of the record to start the string search; and wherein the starting position is determined based on a starting position table containing historical information of previous text string searches.
1. A computer apparatus comprising: at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a database residing in the memory having a record with a beginning position; a query that specifies a sequential string search of the record; a query optimizer that optimizes the query by determining a starting position other than the beginning position of the record to start the string search; and wherein the starting position is determined based on a starting position table containing historical information of previous text string searches. 2. The computer apparatus of claim 1 wherein the starting position is determined based on a starting position in an override starting position table containing start positions specified by a system administrator.