question: private boolean sameQuery ( byte [ ] a , byte [ ] b ) { int top = Math . min ( a . length , b . length ) ; for ( int i = 0 ; i < top ; i ++ ) { if ( a [ i ] != b [ i ] ) return false ; if ( a [ i ] == '\t' ) return true ; } return a . length == b . length ; }
target:  are the two strings identical up until the first tab