Searching a MySQL DB...

Ok this doesnt have a lot to do with php but it uses it and i figured the people on this list are also mysql experts also. :) What i am asking is how can i search a column for any data that begins with a certain letter. in other words use wildkards or somthing? This example most likely does not work but this is just here to show you a little mroe of what i mean: $query = "SELECT * FROM $tbcont WHERE namef = 'A*' "; $result = mysql_db_query( "$dbname", $query, $sqlcon); if ($result) { while ($r = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { blah........ } }