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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-26T11:20:02+00:00

I’m developing an Android application that makes a Query using Activity.managedQuery() , which takes

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I’m developing an Android application that makes a Query using Activity.managedQuery(), which takes a String for the selection argument. The argument is the WHERE clause of a SQL statement, but excluding the WHERE keyword.

My application uses the first and last names of people who might be in the user’s address book. However, some people have a name which contains a single quote character. For example, John O'Reilly. This causes a SQLiteException because the single quote terminated the string and it doesn’t know how to handle Reilly.

I tried doing a simple:
name = name.replace("'", "\\'");
But this didn’t work.

The full exception looks like this: 

android.database.sqlite.SQLiteException: near "Reilly": syntax error: , while compiling:     
SELECT raw_contact_id, display_name FROM view_data_restricted data WHERE (1) AND 
(in_visible_group = '1' AND display_name ='John O\'Reilly') ORDER BY display_name 
COLLATE LOCALIZED ASC
at android.database.DatabaseUtils.readExceptionFromParcel(DatabaseUtils.java:158)
at android.database.DatabaseUtils.readExceptionFromParcel(DatabaseUtils.java:114)
at android.content.ContentProviderProxy.bulkQueryInternal(ContentProviderNative.java:330)
at android.content.ContentProviderProxy.query(ContentProviderNative.java:366)
at android.content.ContentResolver.query(ContentResolver.java:262)
at android.app.Activity.managedQuery(Activity.java:1550)
at org.jonescb.myApp.MyClass.queryFriends(MyClass.java:68)

This is my code:

fname = fname.replace("'", "\\'");
Uri contacts = ContactsContract.Data.CONTENT_URI;
String[] projection = new String[] {
    ContactsContract.Data.RAW_CONTACT_ID,
    ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME
};
String selection = ContactsContract.Contacts.IN_VISIBLE_GROUP +
                " = '1' AND " + ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME +
                " ='" + fname + "'";
String sortOrder = ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME +
                " COLLATE LOCALIZED ASC";
Cursor cursor = activity.managedQuery(
                contacts,
                projection,
                selection,
                null,
                sortOrder
                );
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    use selectionArguments

    Uri contacts = ContactsContract.Data.CONTENT_URI;
String[] projection = new String[] {
    ContactsContract.Data.RAW_CONTACT_ID,
    ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME
};
String selection = ContactsContract.Contacts.IN_VISIBLE_GROUP +
                " =? AND " + ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME +
                " =?";
String sortOrder = ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME +
                " COLLATE LOCALIZED ASC";
Cursor cursor = activity.managedQuery(
                contacts,
                projection,
                selection,
                new String[] {"1", fname},
                sortOrder
                );
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