Question

I have an application, and I am trying to set up a fairly large SQLite database (one table with roughly 5000 rows) into it. I have built the DB classes and everything, and my app works when I tested on a smaller scale (400 rows), but now when I want to import my database, I get the out of memory error which I can’t seem to find a way to get around.

The database is initially on MySQL on my web server, and I couldn’t convert it for some odd reason but I managed to generate a text file with the queries to add all 5000 rows, which is 11.5mb in size. I have this file in my assets folder, and I am trying this to put it into my DB:

public void onHandleIntent(Intent intent) {

        DBAdapter db = new DBAdapter(getApplicationContext());
        db.open();

        try {
            InputStream is = getAssets().open("verbs_sql.txt");
            db.executeSQL(convertStreamToString(is));
        } catch (IOException e) {}

        db.close();

        // Run main activity
        Intent i = new Intent(DatabaseReceiver.this, BaseActivity.class);
        i.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_EXCLUDE_FROM_RECENTS);
        DatabaseReceiver.this.startActivity(i);
    }

    public static String convertStreamToString(InputStream is) throws IOException {
        Writer writer = new StringWriter();

        char[] buffer = new char[2048];
        try {
            Reader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is, "UTF-8"));
            int n;
            while ((n = reader.read(buffer)) != -1) {
                writer.write(buffer, 0, n);
            }
        } finally {
            is.close();
        }
        String text = writer.toString();
        return text;
    }
}

The out of memory error occurs on the StringWriter(), so it looks likes it putting that big file on to the memory. How can I solve this? I have also tried looping through all 5000 rows but after maybe 30 seconds I got the out of memory again.

Answer 1

Sqlite databases are just files, when you’re trying to run thousands of inserts on the phone you’re hitting the SD card over and over for file access.

What you’ll want to do is create the sqlite database on your desktop and include the already created database in the app. If you need to regularly update the information in the database you could post it on a website and have the app download it, just make sure to only do large downloads over Wifi.

Check out this Tech Talk for more information.

Edit: See this for more information on creating an sqlite database in windows and including it in your app.