Firebase startAt String only takes first character - firebase

Question

I have a structure like below under xyz
{
"pushKey000": {
"findKey": "john_1",
"userName": "john",
"topic": 1
},
"pushKey001": {
"findKey": "john_2",
"userName": "john",
"topic": 2
},
"pushKey002": {
"findKey": "joel_1",
"userName": "joel",
"topic": 1
}
}
Now am trying to make a query where I want data of all entries with findKey starting with "john". I tried the following:(Using REST for example)
https://abc.firebaseio.com/xyz.json?orderBy="findKey"&startAt="john"
This gives me all the results including 'joel'. Basically it just uses the first character of startAt, in this case J.
This firebase video fires the same type of query but only searches with just first character.
Is there something wrong that I am doing or is there is any other way to retrieve it using findKey? Thanks a lot for the help in advance
PS: My .indexOn is on findKey and can't change it

Answer 1

There is nothing wrong with your code, there is something wrong with your expectations. (I always wanted to write that as an answer :))
The startAt() function works as a starting point for your query, not a filter. So in your case it will find the first occurance of "john" and return everything from that point forward (Including Joel, Kevin, Tim, etc...).
Unfortunatly there is no direct way to do a query where findKey contains the string "john". But luckely there is a (partial) workaround using endAt().
You query will look like this:
orderBy="findKey"&startAt="john"&endAt="john\uf8ff"
Here \uf8ff is the last unicode character (please correct me if I'm wrong).
With this you can query for values that start with "john" like "johnnie", "johnn", "john". But not "1john" or "johm" or "joel".