Question

I am new to Android and I have to create an application where I need to use a SQLite database.
I am not so well equipped with the SQLite.

Could you tell me what the purpose and use of the SQLiteOpenHelper class, and provide a simple database creation and insertion example?

Answer 1

Sqlite helper class helps us to manage database creation and version management.
SQLiteOpenHelper takes care of all database management activities. To use it,

1.Override onCreate(), onUpgrade() methods of SQLiteOpenHelper. Optionally override onOpen() method.

2.Use this subclass to create either a readable or writable database and use the SQLiteDatabase’s four API methods insert(), execSQL(), update(), delete() to create, read, update and delete rows of your table.

Example to create a MyEmployees table and to select and insert records:

public class MyDatabaseHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {

    private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "DBName";

    private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 2;

    // Database creation sql statement
    private static final String DATABASE_CREATE = "create table MyEmployees
                                 ( _id integer primary key,name text not null);";

    public MyDatabaseHelper(Context context) {
        super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION);
    }

    // Method is called during creation of the database
    @Override
    public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase database) {
        database.execSQL(DATABASE_CREATE);
    }

    // Method is called during an upgrade of the database,
    @Override
    public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase database,int oldVersion,int newVersion){
        Log.w(MyDatabaseHelper.class.getName(),
                         "Upgrading database from version " + oldVersion + " to "
                         + newVersion + ", which will destroy all old data");
        database.execSQL("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS MyEmployees");
        onCreate(database);
    }
}

Now you can use this class as below,

public class MyDB{  

    private MyDatabaseHelper dbHelper;  

    private SQLiteDatabase database;  

    public final static String EMP_TABLE="MyEmployees"; // name of table 

    public final static String EMP_ID="_id"; // id value for employee
    public final static String EMP_NAME="name";  // name of employee

    /** 
     * 
     * @param context 
     */  
    public MyDB(Context context){  
        dbHelper = new MyDatabaseHelper(context);  
        database = dbHelper.getWritableDatabase();  
    }


    public long createRecords(String id, String name){  
        ContentValues values = new ContentValues();  
        values.put(EMP_ID, id);  
        values.put(EMP_NAME, name);  
        return database.insert(EMP_TABLE, null, values);  
    }    

    public Cursor selectRecords() {
        String[] cols = new String[] {EMP_ID, EMP_NAME};  
        Cursor mCursor = database.query(true, EMP_TABLE,cols,null  
            , null, null, null, null, null);  
        if (mCursor != null) {  
            mCursor.moveToFirst();  
        }  
        return mCursor; // iterate to get each value.
    }
}

Now you can use MyDB class in you activity to have all the database operations. The create records will help you to insert the values similarly you can have your own functions for update and delete.