How to use LIKE clause in query function

Question

I am making an application which search messages in the inbox based on sender number. Here is my code:

public void onClick(View v)
{
    Toast.makeText(this, "search", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    final Uri SMS_INBOX = Uri.parse("content://sms/inbox");

    String[] colList = {"address", "body"};

    Cursor c = getContentResolver().query(SMS_INBOX, colList, null, null,"DATE desc");

    String yz= String.valueOf(c.getCount());
    Toast.makeText(this, yz, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

    if(c.moveToFirst())
    {
        Toast.makeText(this, searchtxt.getText(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

        for(int i=0;i<c.getCount();i++)
        {
            String number=c.getString(c.getColumnIndexOrThrow("address")).toString();
            boolean match = number.toUpperCase().indexOf(searchtxt.getText().toString()) != -1; 

            if (match)
            {
                Toast.makeText(this, String.valueOf(i), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                String  body= c.getString(c.getColumnIndexOrThrow("body")).toString();
                tv.setText(tv.getText() + "\n" + body);
            }
            c.moveToNext();
        }
    }
    else
    {
        Toast.makeText(this, "Inside else", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }

    c.close();
}

The above code works fine but it retrieves all the messages in the inbox. I want that it should retrieve only those messages which match the sender number. For that I tried a query using LIKE clause, but with that it returns 0 records. What is the correct way of using the LIKE clause. Here is the code that I tried using LIKE

String[] colList = {"address", "body"};
String[] argList = {"'%"+searchtxt.getText().toString()+"%'"};
Cursor c = getContentResolver().query(SMS_INBOX, colList, "address LIKE ?", argList,"DATE desc");

String yz= String.valueOf(c.getCount());
Toast.makeText(this, yz, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

Please help me out....Thank you...

Answer 1

There is two joker : "%" and "_".

"%" is replacing any string (multiple characters),

"_" is replacing one (and only one) character.

For example :

LIKE 'B%' 

let you find everything which starts with "B". (like "BATMAN");

LIKE '%B%'

let you find everthing which contains "B". (like "ABBA");

LIKE'_B%'

let you find everything which contains ONE caracter, then a "B". (like "ABERCROMBIE)".

if you want to retrieve a string which contains "%" or "_", you may use an escape caracter :

LIKE '%#_B%' ESCAPE #

let you find any strings which contains one "_" followed by a "B". (like "TEST_BATMAN").

I hope that helped.

Al_th