database - Displaying rows from different tables to one ListView in Android - without SQL JOIN -

i'm super-novice @ android programming , have project i'm stuck on.

i have database of (conlang) dictionaries each language in own table. user searches these , results display in listview. right now, i've got working search 1 table.

i want able search 3 tables , display results in one listview rows each of tables. i'd indicate table each row came from. results display like:

from language

lang term : english term

additional information

i've set cursoradapter , have working one of 3 tables.

...

since dictionaries came different sources, have different information. example:

one has columns engterm, vlangterm, fulldefinition

another has engterm, rlangterm, partofspeech

and other has engterm, glangterm, partofspeech, , pronounciationguide (possibly).

for example, table1 might contain results "land," "landing gear" , "landscape" , table2 might contain "land," "landing" , "island" , table3 might contain "bland" , "homeland."

the user can search these tables right only english term, , can select match full word or partial word.

because of how structured, i'm guessing there no way join query.

i don't know if helps @ all, right now, i've got method in sqliteopenhelper class:

public cursor searchdictionarybyenglish             (boolean matchfullwordonly, string searchterm) {     string sql = "select * " + table_vulcan +             " " + column_all_eng_term + " match ?";     if (!matchfullwordonly)         searchterm = "*" + searchterm + "*";     return mdatabase.rawquery(sql, new string[]{searchterm}); } 

(it fts3 table it's searching, match rather like.)

i hope i've made clear i'm trying accomplish, i'm not sure start. i've found answers mergecursor don't know how apply because of different number , names of columns.

here's how union if don't have 1 of columns in 1 of tables, work if you're searching through common column, tables have.

select  field1 ,         field2 ,         field3    ( select    field1 ,                     field2 ,                     field3                table1           union           select    field1 ,                     field2 ,                     field3                table2           union           select    field1 ,                     field2 ,                     null field3                table3     ) tbl tbl.field1 '%search_string%' 

note null field3 in last union.