Problem getting the right Id from the SOQL Query

Question

I having a problem getting the ID of the entity company selected from the dropdownlist. The value passes correctly to the class, but the SOQL query is returning the ID of the Company.com-KY even if I select one of the other ones. I am preatty sure that the problem is because I am using this: WHERE Name LIKE \'%'+String.escapeSingleQuotes(l)+'%\' LIMIT 1';

My question is if there is another way to get the Id using for example 'Where name ='

I already tried this:

soql = 'SELECT Id FROM Entity_c WHERE Name='+String.escapeSingleQuotes(l)+''; soql = 'SELECT Id FROM Entity_c WHERE Name= \'%'+String.escapeSingleQuotes(l)+'%\' ';

Thank you!

Here is my VF page dropdown list

  <select id="list" size="1" onChange="doSearch();"  >
   <option value="-" selected="selected">Select Entity</option>
   <option value="Company" >Company</option>
   <option value="Company.com">Company.com</option>
   <option value="Company.com-KY">Company.com-KY</option>
   </select>

Here is the class

 public PageReference runSearch() {    
 String entity = Apexpages.currentPage().getParameters().get('list');


 soql = 'SELECT Id FROM Entity__c WHERE Name like \'%'+String.escapeSingleQuotes(entity)+'%\' LIMIT 1';

 runQuery(); 

return null;

}

here is query and how assign the entity id to a variable

  public void runQuery() {

try {
  entity = Database.query(soql);
  objectlist =String.valueOf(entity);
  msg = 'Entity selected successfully !'; 

} catch (Exception e) {
  ApexPages.addMessage(new ApexPages.Message(ApexPages.Severity.ERROR, 'Ooops!'));
}

}

Answer 1

Shift your query to a specific Name instead of LIKE:

public PageReference runSearch() {    
     String entity = Apexpages.currentPage().getParameters().get('list');
     try {
         objectlist = [SELECT Id from Entity__c WHERE Name = :entity];
     } catch (DMLException e) {
         //handle e
     }


     return null;

    }

Answer 2

Try to use built in apex components when you can. Use the <apex:selectList> and <apex:selectOption> to bind your data directly to your controller instead of passing it through page parameters. Doing it this way is safer and more efficient.