Answer:
I feel like a complete dummy =( I didn't realize it was adding a space at the end of the string in my code. After I rtrim the empty space from the string it all works.
I'm very sorry to have wasted everyones time =S
I came across an odd thing, here is an example:
This returns the correct result with no problems.
ORM::factory('blog_post')->where('title', 'like', 'this is my 1 post%')->find();
This however, doesn't return anything at all...
$post_title = 'this is my 1 post';
ORM::factory('blog_post')->where('title', 'like', $post_title.'%')->find();
And this doesn't either, even though the text is the same in all 3 examples
$post_title = 'this is my 1 post%';
ORM::factory('blog_post')->where('title', 'like', $post_title)->find();
Any ideas as to why?
Thank you very much for any help =)