Android\'s API provides a clean mechanism via SQLite to make queries into the contact list. However, I am not sure how to limit the results:
Cursor cur = ((Acti
Actually, depending on the provider you can append a limit to the URI as follows:
uri.buildUpon().appendQueryParameter("limit", "40").build()
I know the MediaProvider handles this and from looking at recent code it seems you can do it with contacts too.