heh
thanks Chris and others who have helped me out..

btw, I can't remember who's that..
but someone posted the solution on the forum..

i should have change the wildcard * to %
as in "Name LIKE ('*John*')" to "Name LIKE ('%John%')"

think maybe it's becoz I used adodc ...
if i've used coding instead... think * will work as well..
coz it actually worked in the first place...

anyway, thanks..
btw, how do I close a thread?