Getting unexpected token even when variable is declared

Question

I keep getting the error unexpected token 'skey' even though I have declared the variable.

public class skuControl{
 string skey{get;set;}

 public var skuController() {
    return [select ItemSKU__c from Product__c where Description__c LIKE skey};
         }
  }

Answer 1

1. public var will not work. Its a wrong return type.
2. [select ItemSKU__c from Product__c where Description__c LIKE 'skey'] Your brackets at the end are wrong

Answer 2

You have to use variable binding :

    return [select ItemSKU__c from Product__c where Description__c LIKE :skey];

Also var isn't a data type in Salesforce. If you want to return the Product__c record, then you have to return the 'Product__c' sObject type on your method, like:

// actually the query returns a list of Product__c 
public List<Product__c> doSomething(){
    return [SELECT ItemSKU__c from Product__c where Description__c LIKE :skey];
}

Seems that skuController() is the constructor of your Apex controller and the constructors shouldn't return anything. If that's the case, then on the constructor you can make initializing as below:

public class skuController {

    public List<Product__c> productList { get; set; }

    // controller
    public skuController() {
        productList =  [SELECT ItemSKU__c from Product__c where Description__c LIKE :skey];
    }
}

A better approach would be to use lazy loading if you are on Apex Visualforce controller:

public List<Product__c> getProducts() {
    get {
        if (productList == null) {
            productList =  [SELECT ItemSKU__c from Product__c where Description__c LIKE :skey];
        }
        return productList;
    }
    set;
}

And e.g. the VF page would be:

<apex:page controller="skuController">
    <apex:form >
        <apex:pageBlock>
            <apex:pageblockTable value="{!products}" var="p">
                <apex:column value="{!p.ItemSKU__c}"/>
            </apex:pageblockTable>
        </apex:pageBlock>
    </apex:form>
</apex:page>