Android - Firebase query startAt not working as expected

Question

I am developing an Android app using Firebase as backend. I am new to Firebase and stuck at a problem, well the problem is when I try to search for a record using startAt query, it returns results which does not starts with the keyword I enters.

Here's the data set

itemname
    -KK8vI8A5BZZp3Xo3FpA
       name: "abc"
    -KK8w3uoJdJ0hBSrq0CS
       name: "test"
    -KKAC1o9Vazyg9JLtDoQ
       name: "dude"

And here's the code snippit

Query query = firebase.child(Constants.KEY_ITEM_NAME).orderByChild("name").startAt("abc");
        query.addChildEventListener(new ChildEventListener() {
            @Override
            public void onChildAdded(DataSnapshot dataSnapshot, String s) {
                Iterator<DataSnapshot> i = dataSnapshot.getChildren().iterator();
                while (i.hasNext()) {
                    DataSnapshot d = i.next();
                    LOG(d.getKey(), d.getValue().toString());
                }
            }

So when I search for abc the response also includes test. Maybe I am doing something wrong or I am going the wrong way. Could anyone please point me in right direction.

P.S I am trying to use an AutocompleteTextView to search items.

Thanks

Answer 1

When you call orderByChild("name").startAt("abc") the database orders all items by their name property, skips the ones before abc and then returns them all.

If you're only looking to return children that match abc, you'd use equalTo():

query = firebase.child(Constants.KEY_ITEM_NAME).orderByChild("name").equalTo("abc");