Postgresql: ILIKE query with % as search term

I have a JDBC query that performs an ILIKE operation.

select project_name from project_table where project_name ILIKE '%test%';

The above returns all the results matching (wildcarded) the term

. However, when the project_name is

%project_name

and the user searches for just

%

, the query returns all the rows instead of just the matching row. Essentially the query becomes

project_name from project_table where project_name ILIKE '%%%';

I understand the concept of wildcarding in postgresql, but is there a way to just limit the result matching the

%

?