diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/util/StringUtils.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/util/StringUtils.scala
index cde8bd5b9614c..a60f8fb5a00a4 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/util/StringUtils.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/util/StringUtils.scala
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 package org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.util
 
+import java.lang.StringBuilder
 import java.util.regex.{Pattern, PatternSyntaxException}
 
 import org.apache.spark.unsafe.types.UTF8String
@@ -27,21 +28,28 @@ object StringUtils {
   // replace the % with .*, match 0 or more times with any character
   def escapeLikeRegex(v: String): String = {
     if (!v.isEmpty) {
-      "(?s)" + (' ' +: v.init).zip(v).flatMap {
-        case (prev, '\\') => ""
-        case ('\\', c) =>
-          c match {
-            case '_' => "_"
-            case '%' => "%"
-            case _ => Pattern.quote("\\" + c)
-          }
-        case (prev, c) =>
-          c match {
-            case '_' => "."
-            case '%' => ".*"
-            case _ => Pattern.quote(Character.toString(c))
-          }
-      }.mkString
+      val sb = new StringBuilder("(?s)")
+      var prev = ' '
+      for (c <- v) {
+        val out = (prev, c) match {
+          case (prev, '\\') => ""
+          case ('\\', c) =>
+            c match {
+              case '_' => "_"
+              case '%' => "%"
+              case _ => Pattern.quote("\\" + c)
+            }
+          case (prev, c) =>
+            c match {
+              case '_' => "."
+              case '%' => ".*"
+              case _ => Pattern.quote(Character.toString(c))
+            }
+        }
+        prev = c
+        sb.append(out)
+      }
+      sb.toString()
     } else {
       v
     }