Hello,

I am trying to search for a name, so that the user only need to input part of the name and it will come up.

firstname LIKE '%?%';

ps.setString(1, firstname);

The statement sees the '?' as part of the String to be search, so is there any commands to say that the '?' is used for a preparedstatement and not part of the search string?

What is the RDBMS you are using please? I will then move the thread to the appropriate forum and you will likely get an answer.

pootle flump ur codings are working excelent.

postgreSQL using java

TBH I don't know if this is a java question or a PostgreSQL question.

Moving to PostgreSQL - let me know if it should be java.

pootle flump ur codings are working excelent.

I would say that it's probably a java issue.

PostgreSQL uses ANSI standard like wildcards for text searches

% = any number of characters,
_ = 1 character.

ref http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/s...-matching.html

and

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutor.../prepared.html

BTW. I know virtually nothing about Java, but from perusing the java documentation, it appears that you may not want to use the apostrophes (string/date delimiters) in your SQL in a prepared statement. And, if that's the case, you might need to concatenate the wildcard character(s) to the text in the .setstring method call.

ps.setString(1, "%" + firstname + "%");

Thanks I ll try it out, seems safe to do it this way,