Partial string comparison in DECODE ?

I am trying to create a DECODE statement to replicate some formulas I developed in Crystal reports,( I want to create a view that includes the resulting values) so I need to create a DECODE statement that is equivalent to:

if dept_nbr like 'T791%' then 'Management' else if dept_nbr like 'T792%' then 'Second Level' else if dept_nbr like 'T7922%' then 'Second_sub Level2' .....etc ( These are examples, not real , so ignore logic ) In other words, the 'comparison part' may be the first 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 characters in the field...

It appears that wild cards are not allowed in the DECODE expression, so any ideas ?

Thanks,

John Greco

PS: ( Oracle 7.3.4, Netware 4.11,)

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