Question

I have an iPhone app that is using sqlite 3.6 (not with FMDB) to store and load data. I load the database when the app loads and uses the same database connection through the whole app.

In a background thread the app downloads some data from a webserver and writes to the database. At the same time the main thread also might need to write to the same database. This sometimes leads to EXC_BAD_ACCESS as both threads are trying to access the database.

What is the best and easiest way to be able to use the database from different threads?

This is an example that shows the problem:

sqlite3 *database;   

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {   

    NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
    NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
    NSString *path = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"database.db"];

    if (sqlite3_open([path UTF8String], &database) != SQLITE_OK) {
        sqlite3_close(database);
        return YES;
    }

    [NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:@selector(test) toTarget:self withObject:nil];
    [self test];
    return YES;
}

-(void)test {
    for (int i = 0; i < 2000; i++) {
        NSLog(@"%i",i);
        sqlite3_exec([self getDb],"UPDATE mytable SET test=''", 0, 0, 0);
    }
}

EDIT:

After willcodejavaforfood’s answer below I’ve tried to change my code to use a separate database object (connection) for each separate thread and also added sqlite3_busy_timeout() so that sqlite will retry to write if the database is busy. Now I don’t get EXC_BAD_ACCESS anymore but I’ve noticed that not all data get inserted. So this is not a stable solution either. It seems to be really hard to get sqlite working with threading..

My new solution with separate connections:

-(void)test {
    sqlite3 *db = [self getNewDb];
    for (int i = 0; i < 2000; i++) {
        NSLog(@"%i",i);
        sqlite3_exec(db,"UPDATE mytable SET test=''", 0, 0, 0);
    }
}

- (sqlite3 *)getNewDb {
    sqlite3 *newDb = nil;
    if (sqlite3_open([[self getDbPath] UTF8String], &newDb) == SQLITE_OK) {
        sqlite3_busy_timeout(newDb, 1000);
    } else {
        sqlite3_close(newDb);
    }
    return newDb;
}

Answer 1

I solved this problem by using one thread and an NSOperationQueue to insert the Data. I would give it some thought. I’ve never been able to get a stable System with mutliple threads, and most writes aren’t that important that queuing really helps.

As per request, some more Infos:

I have a subclass of NSOperation that I instantiate with the model object I want to store.
These operations are than submitted to an extension of NSOperationsQueue that runs in a seperate thread. This custom Queue just adds a pointer to the database instance. When the operation is executed, it uses the [NSOperationsQueue currentQueue] property to access the queue and than the database. On purpose, i used non-concurrent operations (maxOperations was set to 1)
Hence, only one query (or update) is executed at a time consecutivly, completely in the background.

Obviously you need some kind of callback after you’re finished.

It is possibly not the fast, but the most stable and cleanest solution i could find.

Docs:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/General/Conceptual/ConcurrencyProgrammingGuide/OperationObjects/OperationObjects.html
http://www.cimgf.com/2008/02/16/cocoa-tutorial-nsoperation-and-nsoperationqueue/
http://icodeblog.com/2010/03/04/iphone-coding-turbo-charging-your-apps-with-nsoperation/