public static Filter createFilterFromArguments(ArrayList<byte[]> filterArguments) {
    Preconditions.checkArgument(filterArguments.size() == 1, "Expected 1 but got: %s",
      filterArguments.size());
    byte[] columnPrefix = ParseFilter.removeQuotesFromByteArray(filterArguments.get(0));
    return new ColumnPrefixFilter(columnPrefix);
  }
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 with columns like 'and', 'anti' but not keys
with columns like 'ball', 'act'.
hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/filter/ColumnPrefixFilter.java