Question

My Android app is crashing with this error:

E/AndroidRuntime(  315): Caused by: android.database.sqlite.SQLiteException: bind or column index out of range: handle 0x3470a0
...
E/AndroidRuntime(  315):        at lee.medical.icu.dataentry.db.PatientInfoDbHelper.getTests(PatientInfoDbHelper.java:163)

It’s stumbling on this bit of code:

SQLiteDatabase db = dbHelper.getReadableDatabase();
String[] columns = {C_LOCATION, C_TESTS};
String selection = "? = '?' and ? = '?'";
String[] selectionArgs = {C_LAST, lastName, C_FIRST, firstName};
Cursor cursor = db.query(TABLE, columns, selection, selectionArgs,
        null, null, null); // line 163

What could this error mean?

(A couple of notes: C_LOCATION, C_TESTS, C_LAST, and C_FIRST are columns in my database. lastName and firstName are method arguments that are self-explanatory.)

Edit: I had to play around with antlersoft’s solution a bit to make it work. In case anyone else having the same problem stumbles upon this question, the solution in my case was to change the selection to:

String selection = C_LAST + " = ? and " + C_FIRST + " = ?"

Answer 1

Don’t put your ? in single-quotes for string arguments; in single quotes the ? is taken as a literal string and not as an argument placeholder– SQLite will know the type of the argument passed as ? and so you don’t have to quote it.

The way you have written it there are four arguments and only two argument placeholders in your query and so the exception.