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How to return all data from one column Android SQL

I have an SQLite Database in my application. It has three columns. being _id, TEXT, and Location. If I want to return all the data from, say, the TEXT column should I use cursor.getColumnIndex(2)? I am obviously new to SQLite. And and all help is appreciated. Thanks everyone!

Yes, friend, you are new.
First off, your database doesn't have three columns, but rather, your table does. Databases have tables, tables of columns (fields) and rows (records).
Secondly, TEXT is not a valid name for a column, as it's a datatype. Let's say you called the three columns id, theText, and location -- then if you selected all three columns to be returned, the second one would be accessible through:
cursor.getString(1); // that's the second column returned
or
cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex( "theText" ) );
However, you can have sqlite do most of the work for you by selecting only the column you're interested in, so then you'd cursor.getString(0) as it's the only column returned.
For more pertinent explanations, please post your code in the question.

simply apply the query of getting all contacts and take an array of string type and then add the required record in that array as shown below
I hope this code help u
in DBHelper getting record of particular column :
public ArrayList<String> getAllCotactsEmail() {
ArrayList<String> arrayList=new ArrayList<>();
SQLiteDatabase db = this.getReadableDatabase();
Cursor res = db.rawQuery( "select * from contacts", null );
res.moveToFirst();
if (res != null)
{
while(res.isAfterLast() == false){
arrayList.add(res.getString(res.getColumnIndex(CONTACTS_COLUMN_EMAIL)));
Log.d("emailssinlisttt",arrayList.toString());
res.moveToNext();
}}
return arrayList;
}
retrieve :
email=mydb.getAllCotactsEmail();
Log.d("emaillllll",email.toString());

You need to query your Database to get your data. This query will return a Cursor with the column you specified in the query.
To make query, you need to call query() method from ContentResolver. To get your ContentResolver, you can use getContentResolver() from a Context like Activity :
getContentResolver.query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder);
To understand all parameters, see : ContentResolver
In your case, you want only TEXT column so pass a String array with your TEXT column name for projection parameters.
You want all rows so your selection and selectionArgs parameters must be null.
If you don't care about order, pass null for sortOrder (rows will be sort by ID) :
Cursor c = getContentResolver.query(yourUri, new String[]{"TEXT"}, null, null, null)
This query will return a cursor, to extract your values from the cursor, make a loop like :
if(c.moveToFirst()) {
do {
final String text = c.getString(c.getColumnIndex("TEXT"));
} while (c.moveToNext());
}
Hope this will help you :)

Update singel cell of a row in an SQLite database on Android

I wont to update a single cell of a row in the database. However the row contains of 5 columns so and i would like to not passing all the other values as well as they should remain the same.
I have this code snippet:
Cursor cursor = db.query(STATION_TABLE, null, null, null, null, null, null);
//If the database already include some stations.
if(cursor.moveToFirst())
{
ContentValues stationValues = new ContentValues();
for(StopLocation station: stations)
{
stationValues.clear();
//The database already includes the station
if(cursor.getString(POS_STA_ID).equals(station.getId()))
{
values.put(KEY_STA_DISTANCE, "null");
db.update(STATION_TABLE, stationValues, KEY_STA_ID + "=?", new String[]{station.getId()});
}
The db.update method throws this exception:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Empty values
Any ideas on how to solve this?

If I understand the question correctly and assuming you are always dealing with one row, there are two possible ways to approach this:
First:
Get the values of all fields in the entire row, and declare them as content values before updating:
ContentValues cv = new ContentValues();
cv.put("Field1","123");
cv.put("Field2","True")
Second:
Use execSQL() method:
String strSQL = "UPDATE your_table SET Field1 = foo WHERE POST_STA_ID = "+ station.getId();
myDataBase.execSQL(strSQL);

Create a FIFO table with SQlite for Android application

I would like to create a FIFO table in order to save only the most 50 recent infomations by deleting the oldest elements when a new infomation arrives. I can do it by manipulating ID in the table but I don't think it is the best solution. Any idea of doing it well?

Instead of checking for date time, sorting your items, and whatnot, you can just assume that the first row in your table is the last to be inserted.
In your Content Provider's insert(Uri uri, ContentValues cv), before doing your db.insert call, you can first query the number of items on that table using getCount() and delete the first row if count>50. Then proceed with your insert call.

You dont need to play with IDs in order to create a FIFO logic. The best would be to add another column as DATETIME in your table which automatically inserts current time-stamp that will help you to select records in ascending order with respect to this column. Your new column should be something like:
DateAdded DATETIME NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
Make sure when ever you insert new record, you must do a COUNT check of total records in this table and if necessary delete the oldest record with respect to DateAdded. Moreover, you can make use of LIMIT and/or MAX in your select-query when it comes to delete the oldest record.

Add a datetime type column to your table if it doesn't contain it yet and set it to 'now' on each insert. Then on each insert select all with limit set to 50 sorted by date. Choose the last item and run a delete query to delete everything older than this last item.

is it must to use sqlite? can you use file handling? you can use simple Queue object and save it to file.

Here is what I did for a list of transactions, and it works okay. When inserting a new entry I check if the count is above 50, if so, I just delete the very last entry:
// Adding new transaction
public void addTransaction(Transaction transaction) {
SQLiteDatabase db = this.getWritableDatabase();
if(getTransactionsCount() > 50){
List<Transaction> allTransactions = getAllTransactions();
Transaction oldestTransaction = allTransactions.get(allTransactions.size()-1);
deleteTransaction(oldestTransaction);
}
ContentValues values = new ContentValues();
values.put(KEY_TRANSACTION_UID, transaction.getUID());
values.put(KEY_TRANSACTION_AMOUNT, transaction.getAmount());
values.put(KEY_TRANSACTION_IS_ADD, transaction.getIsAdd());
// Inserting Row
db.insert(TABLE_TRANSACTIONS, null, values);
db.close(); // Closing database connection
}
And getAllTransactions() returns the list in descending order (based on the id primary key):
// Getting All Transactions
public List<Transaction> getAllTransactions() {
List<Transaction> transactionList = new ArrayList<Transaction>();
// Select All Query
String selectQuery = "SELECT * FROM " + TABLE_TRANSACTIONS + " ORDER BY " + KEY_TRANSACTION_ID + " DESC";
SQLiteDatabase db = this.getWritableDatabase();
Cursor cursor = db.rawQuery(selectQuery, null);
// looping through all rows and adding to list
if (cursor.moveToFirst()) {
do {
Transaction transaction = new Transaction();
transaction.setID(Integer.parseInt(cursor.getString(0)));
transaction.setUID(cursor.getString(1));
transaction.setAmount(cursor.getString(2));
transaction.setIsAdd(cursor.getString(3));
// Adding contact to list
transactionList.add(transaction);
} while (cursor.moveToNext());
}
// return contact list
return transactionList;
}

Android/SQLite: Insert-Update table columns to keep the identifier

Currently, I am using the following statement to create a table in an SQLite database on an Android device.
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS 'locations' (
'_id' INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT, 'name' TEXT,
'latitude' REAL, 'longitude' REAL,
UNIQUE ( 'latitude', 'longitude' )
ON CONFLICT REPLACE );
The conflict-clause at the end causes that rows are dropped when new inserts are done that come with the same coordinates. The SQLite documentation contains further information about the conflict-clause.
Instead, I would like to keep the former rows and just update their columns. What is the most efficient way to do this in a Android/SQLite environment?
As a conflict-clause in the CREATE TABLE statement.
As an INSERT trigger.
As a conditional clause in the ContentProvider#insert method.
... any better you can think off
I would think it is more performant to handle such conflicts within the database. Also, I find it hard to rewrite the ContentProvider#insert method to consider the insert-update scenario. Here is code of the insert method:
public Uri insert(Uri uri, ContentValues values) {
final SQLiteDatabase db = mOpenHelper.getWritableDatabase();
long id = db.insert(DatabaseProperties.TABLE_NAME, null, values);
return ContentUris.withAppendedId(uri, id);
}
When data arrives from the backend all I do is inserting the data as follows.
getContentResolver.insert(CustomContract.Locations.CONTENT_URI, contentValues);
I have problems figuring out how to apply an alternative call to ContentProvider#update here. Additionally, this is not my favored solution anyways.
Edit:
#CommonsWare: I tried to implement your suggestion to use INSERT OR REPLACE. I came up with this ugly piece of code.
private static long insertOrReplace(SQLiteDatabase db, ContentValues values, String tableName) {
final String COMMA_SPACE = ", ";
StringBuilder columnsBuilder = new StringBuilder();
StringBuilder placeholdersBuilder = new StringBuilder();
List<Object> pureValues = new ArrayList<Object>(values.size());
Iterator<Entry<String, Object>> iterator = values.valueSet().iterator();
while (iterator.hasNext()) {
Entry<String, Object> pair = iterator.next();
String column = pair.getKey();
columnsBuilder.append(column).append(COMMA_SPACE);
placeholdersBuilder.append("?").append(COMMA_SPACE);
Object value = pair.getValue();
pureValues.add(value);
}
final String columns = columnsBuilder.substring(0, columnsBuilder.length() - COMMA_SPACE.length());
final String placeholders = placeholderBuilder.substring(0, placeholdersBuilder.length() - COMMA_SPACE.length());
db.execSQL("INSERT OR REPLACE INTO " + tableName + "(" + columns + ") VALUES (" + placeholders + ")", pureValues.toArray());
// The last insert id retrieved here is not safe. Some other inserts can happen inbetween.
Cursor cursor = db.rawQuery("SELECT * from SQLITE_SEQUENCE;", null);
long lastId = INVALID_LAST_ID;
if (cursor != null && cursor.getCount() > 0 && cursor.moveToFirst()) {
lastId = cursor.getLong(cursor.getColumnIndex("seq"));
}
cursor.close();
return lastId;
}
When I check the SQLite database, however, equal columns are still removed and inserted with new ids. I do not understand why this happens and thought the reason is my conflict-clause. But the documentation states the opposite.
The algorithm specified in the OR clause of an INSERT or UPDATE
overrides any algorithm specified in a CREATE TABLE. If no algorithm
is specified anywhere, the ABORT algorithm is used.
Another disadvantage of this attempt is that you loose the value of the id which is return by an insert statement. To compensate this, I finally found an option to ask for the last_insert_rowid. It is as explained in the posts of dtmilano and swiz. I am, however, not sure if this is safe since another insert can happen inbetween.

I can understand the perceived notion that it is best for performance to do all this logic in SQL, but perhaps the simplest (least code) solution is the best one in this case? Why not attempt the update first, and then use insertWithOnConflict() with CONFLICT_IGNORE to do the insert (if necessary) and get the row id you need:
public Uri insert(Uri uri, ContentValues values) {
final SQLiteDatabase db = mOpenHelper.getWritableDatabase();
String selection = "latitude=? AND longitude=?";
String[] selectionArgs = new String[] {values.getAsString("latitude"),
values.getAsString("longitude")};
//Do an update if the constraints match
db.update(DatabaseProperties.TABLE_NAME, values, selection, null);
//This will return the id of the newly inserted row if no conflict
//It will also return the offending row without modifying it if in conflict
long id = db.insertWithOnConflict(DatabaseProperties.TABLE_NAME, null, values, CONFLICT_IGNORE);
return ContentUris.withAppendedId(uri, id);
}
A simpler solution would be to check the return value of update() and only do the insert if the affected count was zero, but then there would be a case where you could not obtain the id of the existing row without an additional select. This form of insert will always return to you the correct id to pass back in the Uri, and won't modify the database more than necessary.
If you want to do a large number of these at once, you might look at the bulkInsert() method on your provider, where you can run multiple inserts inside a single transaction. In this case, since you don't need to return the id of the updated record, the "simpler" solution should work just fine:
public int bulkInsert(Uri uri, ContentValues[] values) {
final SQLiteDatabase db = mOpenHelper.getWritableDatabase();
String selection = "latitude=? AND longitude=?";
String[] selectionArgs = null;
int rowsAdded = 0;
long rowId;
db.beginTransaction();
try {
for (ContentValues cv : values) {
selectionArgs = new String[] {cv.getAsString("latitude"),
cv.getAsString("longitude")};
int affected = db.update(DatabaseProperties.TABLE_NAME,
cv, selection, selectionArgs);
if (affected == 0) {
rowId = db.insert(DatabaseProperties.TABLE_NAME, null, cv);
if (rowId > 0) rowsAdded++;
}
}
db.setTransactionSuccessful();
} catch (SQLException ex) {
Log.w(TAG, ex);
} finally {
db.endTransaction();
}
return rowsAdded;
}
In truth, the transaction code is what makes things faster by minimizing the number of times the database memory is written to the file, bulkInsert() just allows multiple ContentValues to be passed in with a single call to the provider.

One solution is to create a view for the locations table with a INSTEAD OF trigger on the view, then insert into the view. Here's what that would look like:
View:
CREATE VIEW locations_view AS SELECT * FROM locations;
Trigger:
CREATE TRIGGER update_location INSTEAD OF INSERT ON locations_view FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
INSERT OR REPLACE INTO locations (_id, name, latitude, longitude) VALUES (
COALESCE(NEW._id,
(SELECT _id FROM locations WHERE latitude = NEW.latitude AND longitude = NEW.longitude)),
NEW.name,
NEW.latitude,
NEW.longitude
);
END;
Instead of inserting into the locations table, you insert into the locations_view view. The trigger will take care of providing the correct _id value by using the sub-select. If, for some reason, the insert already contains an _id the COALESCE will keep it and override an existing one in the table.
You'll probably want to check how much the sub-select affects performance and compare that to other possible changes you could make, but it does allow you keep this logic out of your code.
I tried some other solutions involving triggers on the table itself based on INSERT OR IGNORE, but it seems that BEFORE and AFTER triggers only trigger if it will actually insert into the table.
You might find this answer helpful, which is the basis for the trigger.
Edit: Due to BEFORE and AFTER triggers not firing when an insert is ignored (which could then have been updated instead), we need to rewrite the insert with an INSTEAD OF trigger. Unfortunately, those don't work with tables - we have to create a view to use it.

INSERT OR REPLACE works just like ON CONFLICT REPLACE. It will delete the row if the row with the unique column already exists and than it does an insert. It never does update.
I would recommend you stick with your current solution, you create table with ON CONFLICT clausule, but every time you insert a row and the constraint violation occurs, your new row will have new _id as origin row will be deleted.
Or you can create table without ON CONFLICT clausule and use INSERT OR REPLACE, you can use insertWithOnConflict() method for that, but it is available since API level 8, requires more coding and leads to the same solution as table with ON CONFLICT clausule.
If you still want to keep your origin row, it means you want to keep the same _id you will have to make two queries, first one for inserting a row, second to update a row if insertion failed (or vice versa). To preserve consistency, you have to execute queries in a transaction.
db.beginTransaction();
try {
long rowId = db.insert(table, null, values);
if (rowId == -1) {
// insertion failed
String whereClause = "latitude=? AND longitude=?";
String[] whereArgs = new String[] {values.getAsString("latitude"),
values.getAsString("longitude")};
db.update(table, values, whereClause, whereArgs);
// now you have to get rowId so you can return correct Uri from insert()
// method of your content provider, so another db.query() is required
}
db.setTransactionSuccessful();
} finally {
db.endTransaction();
}

Use insertWithOnConflict and set the last parameter (conflictAlgorithm) to CONFLICT_REPLACE.
Read more at the following links:
insertWithOnConflict documentation
CONFLICT_REPLACE flag

for me, none of the approaches are work if I don't have "_id"
you should first call update, if the affected rows are zero, then insert it with ignore:
String selection = MessageDetailTable.SMS_ID+" =?";
String[] selectionArgs = new String[] { String.valueOf(md.getSmsId())};
int affectedRows = db.update(MessageDetailTable.TABLE_NAME, values, selection,selectionArgs);
if(affectedRows<=0) {
long id = db.insertWithOnConflict(MessageDetailTable.TABLE_NAME, null, values, SQLiteDatabase.CONFLICT_IGNORE);
}

Use INSERT OR REPLACE.
This is the correct way to do it.

how to delete rows in a table on database using android sqlite3

i'm unable to delete row in a table using sqlite 3.In my code i would like to compare two
values an then delete the data in a table but it is not possible please help me.
while(authCur.moveToNext())
{
db.delete("auth_tab",authCur.getString(0)+"=?" , new String[] { user });
db.delete("auth_tab", null, null);
}

Deleting data
Once data is no longer needed it can be removed from the database with the delete() method. The delete() method expects 3 parameters, the database name, a WHERE clause, and an argument array for the WHERE clause. To delete all records from a table pass null for the WHERE clause and WHERE clause argument array.
db.delete("auth_tab", "authCur.getString(0)=?", new String[] {user);
Simply call the delete() method to remove records from the SQLite database. The delete method expects, the table name, and optionally a where clause and where clause argument replacement arrays as parameters. The where clause and argument replacement array work just as with update where ? is replaced by the values in the array.
or
public void deleteContact(long id) {
SQLiteDatabase db = this.getWritableDatabase();
db.delete(auth_tab, KEY_USER + " = ?",
new String[] { user) });
db.close();
}
WATCH more, and you tube video, how to delete.