Question

I have an app that uses an sqlite database. Currently I have a database helper class that I call from within my main class to access the database. I then temporarily store the items I retrieved in a cursor. Every time I want to access my database I have to open the db, create a new cursor, query the db and add the results to the cursor, pull the information out of the cursor, close the cursor, close the db, then display to the user.

Now I’m accessing the db helper class every time I want to access the db
I’m creating a new cursor every time
And I’m making sqlite queries.

I was wondering if I should change my code to do something like:
Open DB
Store all data to a cursor
close db

then whenever I want to access the information I can instead just reference the cursor eliminating the need to call the db helper class again.

Or would it be more efficient to instead store the data to an array doing something like:
open db
store data to a cursor
loop through cursor and store data into an array
close cursor
close db

What would the difference be (processing time, and memory use) between these and is there an even more efficient way of doing this that uses the least resources? Is it faster to use an array or a cursor? I don’t want to waste cpu time calling unnecessary functions or use more memory storing bloated objects.

Answer 1

In your activity if you want to execute a select query once and you using that data to your activity then you have to make a ArrayList or Hashmap from Cursor and then you have to close your cursor.

But if you have to access a database many times and you are getting a different different results by executing a query then you have to use cursor and fetch data from cursor update to UI and close Cursor.

You are using Helper class so it is the best choice so you don’t have to wonder about processing.

when ever you want to fetch data then just make a object of Helper class,Open connection,execute query and return data,fetch data from cursor in your activity,Update UI,close database.

this is the normal way and also it is a good way.