Develop Reference

Avoid duplicate entries in SQLite

I am writing a small application in android to store basic details about person using SQLite.
I insert data using this function
public void insertData(String user,String p_no,SQLiteDatabase db)
{
ContentValues cv = new ContentValues();
cv.put(NAME, user);
cv.put(PHONE, p_no);
db.insert("MYTABLE", null, cv);
}
The above function allows duplicate names to be stored.
So I wrote a function that will first check whether a name exits and then enter.
public void insertData(String user,String p_no,SQLiteDatabase db)
{
Cursor resultSet=db.rawQuery("select NAME from MYTABLE where NAME = '"+user+"'",null);
if(resultSet==null)
{
ContentValues cv = new ContentValues();
cv.put(NAME, user);
cv.put(PHONE, p_no);
db.insert("MYTABLE", null, cv);
}
else Toast.makeText(context,user+" already exists",Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
But the problem is now toast comes up every time I insert meaning even if the row is unique it is not inserted.
Why resultSet is not null even when there is no such row?

It is because RawQuery never returns null cursor, and that's what your checking criteria is, so it is failing always, and trying to add new value in DB.
I am not able to find the documentation where I learned it, but I will update as soon as possible.
You can check if you have values in cursor using -
if(cursor.moveToFirst())

because it is possible to have an empty cursor. Change your check like
if(cursor.getCount() == 0)
this way, if the cursor is not null, you check if it contains something too.
Probably this is not the best way to handle duplicates, in my opinion. You should mark your column as unique, and use insertWithConflict, to decide what to do in case you have already an entry with that value

Check
if (resultset.getCount() == 0)
Also, create Name as unique key to avoid duplicates. Instead of checking it everytime.

Inserting data to SQLite table with constraint failure

Inserting data to SQLite table with constraint failure
I'm trying to insert data into SQLite table on Android. _id is primary key of the table and I am inserting a row using this method:
public void addSomeData(int id, String datetime) {
ContentValues contentValues = new ContentValues();
contentValues.put(KEY_ID, id);
contentValues.put(KEY_DATETIME, datetime);
mDb.insert(TABLE, null, contentValues);
}
The problem I get is that sometimes primary key constraint is validated and I would like to use something like INSERT IF NOT EXISTS, but preferably something that would work with ContentValues. What are my options? I understand that insertOrThrow() and insertWithOnConflict() methods only return different values, or should I use one of these methods?

Use insertWithOnConflict() with CONFLICT_IGNORE.
Will return ROWID/primary key of new or existing row, -1 on any error.

In my case "constraint failure" happened because of I had some tables which are depended on each other. As for the "insert if not exist", you can query with this id and you check if the cursor's count is bigger than zero. Check the method I'm already using in my app.
public boolean isRowExists(long rowId) {
Cursor cursor = database.query(this.tableName, this.columns, DBSQLiteHelper.COLUMN_ID + " = ? ", new String[] { "" + rowId }, null, null, null);
int numOfRows = cursor.getCount();
cursor.close();
return (numOfRows > 0) ? true : false;
}

to do so you could simply query the db to see if a row with that key exists and insert the new row only if the query returns no data.

Sqlite open helper insert else update?

I want to insert data successfully
Here is my code:
public void insertData(String strTableName,
ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>> arrListproductdatabase) {
db = this.getWritableDatabase();
ContentValues cv = new ContentValues();
for (int i = 0; i < arrListproductdatabase.size(); i++) {
// cv.put(columnName, arrListOfRecord.get(i).get("name"));
cv.put(columnproductname,
arrListproductdatabase.get(i).get("product"));
cv.put(columnproductprice,
arrListproductdatabase.get(i).get("price"));
cv.put(columnproductquantity,
arrListproductdatabase.get(i).get("quantity"));
cv.put(columnproductid,
arrListproductdatabase.get(i).get("productID"));
cv.put(columnresturantID,
arrListproductdatabase.get(i).get("resturantID"));
db.insert(strTableName, null, cv);
}
I want that when I have to press add button again, that time it should check if the product is already inserted, and in that condition it should update and all.
I don't want to create any duplicate value.
Any help would be appreciated!

you can check for the distinct values in the db. please follow the link to have more details
android check duplicate values before inserting data into database

Set 'Product' field as unique key. So when duplicate value arrives from standard insert, it will simply return -1 and the error message will be swallowed.
You can control the behavior by using insertWithOnConflict (String table, String nullColumnHack, ContentValues initialValues, int conflictAlgorithm) where you also specify a conflict algorithm that can be of values:
CONFLICT_ABORT
CONFLICT_FAIL
CONFLICT_IGNORE
CONFLICT_REPLACE
CONFLICT_ROLLBACK
Check out the reference for descrption of the conflict resolution types.
There is also an updateWithOnConflict

You can do that like this :
public boolean checkProduct(String product){
// shold open database here
Cursor mCursor =
db.query(true, DATABASE_TABLE, null, "product='" + product+"'", null, null, null, null, null);
if(mCursor != null){
mCursor.close();
// shold close database here
return true;
}
// shold close database first here also
return false;
}
Hope this helped you.

Android SqlLite update last inserted row

This is what i am using for insert:
public long insert(String content, Date startAt, Date endAt) {
if (content == null || startAt == null) {
return 0;
}
ContentValues contentValues = new ContentValues();
contentValues.put(KEY_CONTENT, content);
contentValues.put(KEY_START_AT, startAt.getTime());
if (endAt == null) {
contentValues.putNull(KEY_END_AT);
} else {
contentValues.put(KEY_END_AT, endAt.getTime());
}
return sqLiteDatabase.insert(TABLE_NAME, null, contentValues);
}
now i want to create update method which will update last inserted row. How can i get last inserted row?

If you have an id attribute that works as a primary key, you can do a raw database query on SqlLite.
Cursor cc = this.mDb.rawQuery("SELECT *" + " FROM " + "<Your DATABASE_NAME> " +
"ORDER BY id " + "DESC LIMIT 1", null);
return cc;
Here,
1. It returns a cursor.
2. mDb is a SQLiteDatabase class instance.
3. ORDER BY id allows the query to sort by id number. As I said, if you have an id as primary key in your table, your latest entry will have the maximum id number.
4. DESC allows to sort by descending order.
5. LIMIT 1 allows to return only 1 row.
6. Always be careful when writing raw queries, white spaces inside the query can be a lot of pain when you do not handle them carefully.
For further queries you can see this tutorial. And obviously Divya's answer is also a good one.

You can use a cursor to retrieve rows and say :
cursor.moveToLast();
OR
cursor.moveToPosition(cursor.getCount() - 1);

When you insert a row in to your table the insert query returns the key of the last inserted row. You can now use this key to update this row.
for example
int newInsertedKey = sqLiteDatabase.insert(TABLE_NAME, null, contentValues);
update table_name set column_name = 'Change 2' where columnID = newInsertedKey
An efficient method would be to avoid anymore database queries to get the last updated row.

Maybe he should use something like this
public long getLastId() {
Cursor c = mDb.query(currentTableName, new String[] { "MAX(_id)" },
null, null, null, null, null, null);
try{
c.moveToFirst();
long id = c.getLong(0);
return id;
}catch(Exception e){
return 0;
}
}
where _id is column by which you identify rows

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.