Develop Reference

Supplement a Records Columns in Room

I am fairly new to Android Room and SQLite in general, so sorry if this is a simple question.
I am getting data from a API that I'd like to insert into a database so it's accessible when the device is offline.
Depending on the endpoint of the API, some fields of my Data objects may be null (Think a summary with just the basic fields versus a fully detailed object with all fields)
To keep the database clean, I'd like to update the entries, but only the columns that are not null (eg. that I have new values for) and keep the rest of the columns untouched.
Here are some example classes to clarify:
Person
#Entity(tableName = "person", indices = {
#Index(value = "id", unique = true)
})
public class Person {
#PrimaryKey
public int id;
public String name;
public String description;
}
Example:
// create db
RoomDB db = RoomDB.create(ctx);
// create some sample objects
final Person p2 = new Person(2, "Peter", null);
// insert them into the db
db.personDao().insert(p2);
// create a updated peter that likes spiders
// but has no name (as a example)
final Person newPeter = new Person(2, null, "Peter likes spiders");
// and update him
db.personDao().updateNonNull(newPeter);
// now we read him back
final Person peter = db.personDao().getById(2);
In this example, the desired values of 'peter' would be:
id = 2
name = "Peter"
description = "Peter likes spiders"
However, using Room's #Update or #Insert i can only get this:
id = 2
name = null
description = "Peter likes spiders"
The only way i found to achive this would be to manuall get the object and supplement the values like so:
#Transaction
public void updateNonNull(Person newPerson) {
final Person oldPerson = getById(newPerson.id);
if (oldPerson == null) {
insert(newPerson);
return;
}
if (newPerson.name == null)
newPerson.name = oldPerson.name;
if (newPerson.description == null)
newPerson.description = oldPerson.description;
update(newPerson);
}
However, that would result in quite a bit of code with bigger objects...
So my question, is there a better way to do this?
Edit:
After some Testing with the SQL by #Priyansh Kedia, i found that those functions indeed work as intended and do so at a higher performance than java.
However, as a SQL statement would have required me to write huge queries, i decided to use a Reflection based solution, as can be seen below.
I only did so because the function isn't called regularly, so the lower performance won't matter too much.
/**
* merge two objects fields using reflection.
* replaces null value fields in newObj with the value of that field in oldObj
* <p>
* assuming the following values:
* oldObj: {name: null, desc: "bar"}
* newObj: {name: "foo", desc: null}
* <p>
* results in the "sum" of both objects: {name: "foo", desc: "bar"}
*
* #param type the type of the two objects to merge
* #param oldObj the old object
* #param newObj the new object. after the function, this is the merged object
* #param <T> the type
* #implNote This function uses reflection, and thus is quite slow.
* The fastest way of doing this would be to use SQLs' ifnull or coalesce (about 35% faster), but that would involve manually writing a expression for EVERY field.
* That is a lot of extra code which i'm not willing to write...
* Besides, as long as this function isn't called too often, it doesn't really matter anyway
*/
public static <T> void merge(#NonNull Class<T> type, #NonNull T oldObj, #NonNull T newObj) {
// loop through each field that is accessible in the target type
for (Field f : type.getFields()) {
// get field modifiers
final int mod = f.getModifiers();
// check this field is not status and not final
if (!Modifier.isStatic(mod)
&& !Modifier.isFinal(mod)) {
// try to merge
// get values of both the old and new object
// if the new object has a null value, set the value of the new object to that of the old object
// otherwise, keep the new value
try {
final Object oldVal = f.get(oldObj);
final Object newVal = f.get(newObj);
if (newVal == null)
f.set(newObj, oldVal);
} catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
Log.e("Tenshi", "IllegalAccess in merge: " + e.toString());
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}

There is no in-built method in room to do this
What you can do is, put check in the query for your update method.
#Query("UPDATE person SET name = (CASE WHEN :name IS NOT NULL THEN :name ELSE name END), description = (CASE WHEN :description IS NOT NULL THEN :description ELSE description END) WHERE id = :id")
Person update(id: Int, name: String, description: String)
We have written the update query for SQL which checks if the inserted values are null or not, and if they are null, then the previous values are retained.

Android SQL query not recognizing first entry

Buckle up folks, this is a weird one. I'm currently working on an android app that involves storing and retrieving data in an sqlite database. I was going through the app and testing some of the basic features to make sure everything worked, and lo and behold I found a bug in retrieving data from my database. When a user inputs their very first entry to the app, everything works as expected, the values get processed and stored. However, when I go back and attempt to access that data using SELECT * FROM history; I get a cursor that returns true when I call data.moveToNext(), yet when I loop through it using while(data.moveToNext()) { //get values and add to a List<> } the while loop never gets executed.
I've looked at the contents of the database after moving the file to my computer and opening the database using this db browser and I can see my entry.
Here's the method that I call to get all the points from my database:
List<PointValue> getAllPoints() {
List<PointValue> points;
Cursor data = rawQuery("SELECT * FROM history");
if (data.moveToNext()) {
points = new ArrayList<>();
while (data.moveToNext()) {
System.out.println("Looped");
long timestamp = data.getLong(data.getColumnIndexOrThrow("timestamp"));
int level = data.getInt(data.getColumnIndexOrThrow("level"));
points.add(new PointValue(timestamp, level));
}
} else {
return null;
}
data.close();
if (points.size() == 0) {
return null;
}
return points;
}
The rawQuery method looks like this:
private Cursor rawQuery(String sql) {
SQLiteDatabase db = this.getReadableDatabase();
return db.rawQuery(sql, null);
}
When I tried debugging this on my own, the size of points is 0 even though I know that there's at least one point in the database. Thoughts? The class containing all of my sql related stuff extends SQLiteOpenHelper
EDIT:
Here's the solution suggested by #Isaac Payne (still doesn't work):
public List<PointValue> getAllPoints() {
List<PointValue> points = new ArrayList<>();
Cursor data = rawQuery("SELECT * FROM history");
while (data.moveToNext()) {
long timestamp = data.getLong(data.getColumnIndexOrThrow("timestamp"));
int level = data.getInt(data.getColumnIndexOrThrow("level"));
points.add(new PointValue(timestamp, level));
}
data.close();
if (points.size() == 0) {
return null;
}
return points;
}

The issue is that when you call data.moveToNext() in the if statement you are moving to the first entry, then you call moveToNext() again in your while loop moving to the second non-existent entry. Try removing the if statement

Add data.moveToFirst() before if loop.
Cursor data = rawQuery("SELECT * FROM history");
//add this line
data.moveToFirst();
if (data.moveToNext()) {

Multiple Query Condition in Android using ORMLITE

i want to make a simple query, with multiple conditions
I use OrmLite to map entity object.
Now I want to search for an object into my table.
Supposing i have a Person entity that maps PERSON table, what I want to do is to initialize an object with some parameters and search it.
Suppose a function searchPerson(Person oPerson)
If i pass an object OPerson like this
Id = null
Name = John
Age = null
Sex = male
Is possible to write a query to reach that goal? Something like this pseudo-code
pers = (from p in db.Table<Person>()
where (if OPerson.Id !=null) p.Id==OPerson.Id}
AND {(if OPerson.Name !=null) p.Name.Contains(OPerson.Name)}
AND {(if condition) where-contion}
select p).ToList();
I know that i can do multiple query in this way
list=PersonDao.queryBuilder().where().eq("name",OPerson.name)
.and().eq("sex",OPerson.sex").query();
but I want also to check if the value exists

where (if OPerson.Id !=null) p.Id==OPerson.Id}
#ArghArgh is close but doesn't have the ANDs right. The problem is that the AND statements are conditional on whether there were any previous statements. I'd do something like:
QueryBuilder<Person, Integer> queryBuilder = dao.queryBuilder();
Where<Person, Integer> where = queryBuilder.where();
int condCount = 0;
if (oPerson.id != null) {
where.eq("id", oPerson.id);
condCount++;
}
if (oPerson.name != null) {
where.like("name", "%" + oPerson.name + "%");
condCount++;
}
...
// if we've added any conditions then and them all together
if (condCount > 0) {
where.and(condCount);
}
// do the query
List<Persion> personList = queryBuilder.query();
This makes use of the where.and(int) method which takes a number of clauses on the stack and puts them together with ANDs between.

I think that you must use the QueryBuilder.
Try something like this
QueryBuilder<Person, Integer> queryBuilder = PersonDao.queryBuilder();
// get the WHERE object to build our query
Where<Person, String> where = queryBuilder.where();
if(oPerson.Name!=null)
where.like("Name", "%"+oPerson.Name+"%");
// and
where.and();
if(Person.Sex!=null)
where.like("Sex", "%"+oPerson.sex+"%");
PreparedQuery<Person> preparedQuery = queryBuilder.prepare();
Than you can call it in this way
List<Person> list = PersontDao.query(preparedQuery);

Modifying endpoint class to list nearby places stored in the App Engine Datastore instead of all the places

I just started learning about Cloud Endpoints from this tutorial by Google. The sample app provided in this tutorial defines Place as a JPA entity that has a GeoPt field for storing its location in the the App-Engine backend app which can be accessed by an android client via Google Cloud Endpoints.
I want to modify the PlaceEndPoint class in this sample app to return the list of only those places stored in the datastore that are nearby the user of the Android app instead of listing all the places in the datastore. By nearby, I mean a list of those places that lie in around 30 km radius sorted by the distance from the user. I would later need to apply more filters to these results by the type of places the user wants to see.
To do this I would probably have to:
1. Pass the user's location from the android client to the App-Engine backend
2. Tweak the function listPlace() in the PlaceEndpoint class of the backend app to return places near the user
But I'm not familiar enough with App Engine and Endpoints to figure out how to go about it. Please give me any hint or direction that would be helpful. Thanks so much in anticipation!!
Here is the code for the listPlace method in the PlaceEndpoint class as contained in the Google's sample app:
#Api(name = "placeendpoint", namespace = #ApiNamespace(ownerDomain = "google.com", ownerName = "google.com", packagePath = "samplesolutions.mobileassistant"))
public class PlaceEndpoint {
/**
* This method lists all the entities inserted in datastore.
* It uses HTTP GET method and paging support.
*
* #return A CollectionResponse class containing the list of all entities
* persisted and a cursor to the next page.
*/
#SuppressWarnings({ "unchecked", "unused" })
#ApiMethod(name = "listPlace")
public CollectionResponse<Place> listPlace(
#Nullable #Named("cursor") String cursorString,
#Nullable #Named("limit") Integer limit) {
EntityManager mgr = null;
Cursor cursor = null;
List<Place> execute = null;
try {
mgr = getEntityManager();
Query query = mgr.createQuery("select from Place as Place");
if (cursorString != null && cursorString != "") {
cursor = Cursor.fromWebSafeString(cursorString);
query.setHint(JPACursorHelper.CURSOR_HINT, cursor);
}
if (limit != null) {
query.setFirstResult(0);
query.setMaxResults(limit);
}
execute = (List<Place>) query.getResultList();
cursor = JPACursorHelper.getCursor(execute);
if (cursor != null)
cursorString = cursor.toWebSafeString();
// Tight loop for fetching all entities from datastore and accomodate
// for lazy fetch.
for (Place obj : execute)
;
} finally {
mgr.close();
}
return CollectionResponse.<Place> builder().setItems(execute)
.setNextPageToken(cursorString).build();
}

What to do with Cursor after a SQLite query?

This is my first time using a database and I'm not really sure how this works. I made the database and made a query that returns a cursor and... now what? What is a cursor, really? Can I just use that to navigate through my data or do I have to put it in an ArrayList or ListActivity or what?

You need to iterate the cursor to get your results.
Use cursor.moveToFirst() and/or cursor.moveToNext() (with a while loop). Then you can use the getX() method, like cursor.getInt() or cursor.getString().
For example, ir your are expecting one result from your query:
if (cursor.moveToFirst()) {
String name = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex('NAME'));
int age = cursor.getInt(cursor.getColumnIndex('AGE'));
} else {
// oops nothing found!
}

First call cursor.moveToFirst(). Each time you call cursor.moveToNext() it will move to the next row. Make sure when you are done with your cursor you call cursor.deactivate() or you will get errors in your log cat.

Iterate over the returned Cursor instance
public List<Object[]> cursorToTableRows(Cursor cursor) {
List<Object[]> result = new ArrayList<Object[]>(cursor.getCount());
cursor.move(0);
cursor.moveToNext();
while (cursor.isAfterLast() == false) {
Object[] tableRow = new Object[cursor.getColumnCount()];
for(int i=0; i<cursor.getColumnNames().length; i++) {
int columnIndex = cursor.getColumnIndex(cursor.getColumnName(i));
String columnValue = cursor.getString(columnIndex);
tableRow[i] = columnValue;
}
result.add(tableRow);
cursor.moveToNext();
}
cursor.close();
return result;
}
Then create the desired objects.
public List<Vehicle> getVehicles() {
List<Vehicle> vehicles = new ArrayList<Vehicle>();
Cursor cursor = null;
List<Object[]> objects = cursorToTableRows(cursor);
for(Object[] row : objects) {
int i=0;
Vehicle vehicle = new Vehicle(row[i++].toString(), row[i++].toString()));
vehicles.add(vehicle)
}
return vehicles;
}

from Developer.android: This interface provides random read-write access to the result set returned by a database query.
In other words: query returns you a set of data represented by a cursor. First you need to make sure you got a valid cursor (not null) and then try to move it to desired position in the data set (use moveToXXX methods). In order to obtain data pointed by cursor use getXXX methods. When done using it make sure to call close to release resources.

According to this link it looks like you can iterate through the query return using something like:
cursor.next();
And grab the data at the location you are looking for using:
cursor.getString(0)

After you successfully have your Cursor setup, you would typically want to display that to a view in some form.
Have a look at the following answer for a detailed, but simple example of using a Cursor Adapter to pair up your newly-minted Cursor with your desired XML View:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/20532937/293280