public static Filter createFilterFromArguments(ArrayList<byte[]> filterArguments) {
    byte[][] prefixes = new byte[filterArguments.size()][];
    for (int i = 0; i < filterArguments.size(); i++) {
      byte[] columnPrefix = ParseFilter.removeQuotesFromByteArray(filterArguments.get(i));
      prefixes[i] = columnPrefix;
    }
    return new MultipleColumnPrefixFilter(prefixes);
  }
This filter is used for selecting only those keys with columns that matches a particular prefix.
For example, if prefix is 'an', it will pass keys will columns like 'and', 'anti' but not keys
with columns like 'ball', 'act'.
hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/filter/MultipleColumnPrefixFilter.java