How to introduce indexing to sqlite query in android? - sqlite

In my android application, I use Cursor c = db.rawQuery(query, null); to query data from a local sqlite database, and one of the query string looks like the following:
SELECT t1.* FROM table t1
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT 1 FROM table t2
WHERE t2.start_time = t1.start_time AND t2.stop_time > t1.stop_time
)
however, the issue is that the query gets very slow when the database gets huge. Trying to look into introducing indexing to speed up the query, but so far, not been very successful, therefore, would be great to have some help here, as it's also hard to find examples for this for android applications.

You can create a composite index for the columns start_time and stop_time:
CREATE INDEX idx_name ON table_name(start_time, stop_time);
You can read in The SQLite Query Optimizer Overview:
The ON and USING clauses of an inner join are converted into
additional terms of the WHERE clause prior to WHERE clause analysis
...
and:
If an index is created using a statement like this:
CREATE INDEX idx_ex1 ON ex1(a,b,c,d,e,...,y,z);
Then the index might be used if the initial columns of the index
(columns a, b, and so forth) appear in WHERE clause terms. The initial
columns of the index must be used with the = or IN or IS operators.
The right-most column that is used can employ inequalities.
You may have to uninstall the app from the device so that the db is deleted and rerun to recreate it, or increase the version number of the db so that you can create the index in the onUpgrade() method.

Related

How do I create an expression-based index using the instr() function?

With Sqlite3, I am trying to do a query like:
select *
from data
where instr(filepath,'.txt') != 0
And I want to index this query to speed it up.
I tried to create an index like:
create index data_instr_filepath
on data(instr(filepath,'.txt'));
However, "explain query plan" still shows that I'm doing a table scan.
Is this doable in sqlite? The examples I have found for doing expression-based indexes seems to be limited to the length function and multiplying two columns together.
UPDATE:
Thanks to Mike's answer, I refactored my query to not use inequalities and was able to create an index that hits it. Below are my indexes that I ended up using:
create index data_instr_filepath_txt on data(instr(filepath,'.txt'));
create index data_instr_filepath_substr on data(substr(filepath,0,instr(filepath,'.')));
The reason is that an index will likely not be used for an inequality as per :-
Similarly, index columns will not normally be used (for indexing
purposes) if they are to the right of a column that is constrained
only by inequalities. The SQLite Query Optimizer Overview
You are able to try forcing the use of an index by using INDEXED BY. However, this will not work in your situation because of the above flagging the index as not being usable. (the query will still work)
e.g.
EXPLAIN QUERY PLAN
SELECT * FROM data INDEXED BY data_instr_filepath
WHERE instr(filepath,'.txt') != 0
results in :-
no query solution
Time: 0s

SQLite - selecting from a view with conditions, when are rows filtered?

The question is about SQLite.
Suppose I have a view which is a result of a join of multiple tables, the tables are linked with foreign key constraints and all indexes are in place, and a select statement against such a view is executed and it uses a where condition which selects only a subset of the available rows. For each statement, the view must be 'materialized' (I don't know what the real word is), but is it materialized fully for all rows and the filtering from the select takes place then, or is the view materialized in a 'smart' way in which it already pre-filters the data somehow? Does it even matter? How does this work?
When you are querying a view like this:
SELECT ...
FROM MyView
WHERE ...
then the view gets merged as a subquery, like this:
SELECT ...
FROM (SELECT ...
FROM ...
WHERE ...)
WHERE ...
Futher processing is the same, whether the subquery originated from a view or was written explicitly in the query.
If possible, SQLite tries to flatten the subquery so that the end result is a single, simple query with all the joins and WHERE conditions merged together.
If that is not possible, SQLite tries to implement the subquery as a coroutine, i.e., it executes the inner query until it gets one row, and then applies any processing of the outer query to that row; then outputs the result, if any; then repeats.
Only if the inner query must compute all rows before returning the first one (for example, when using an ORDER BY that cannot be flattened), then using a coroutine is not possible, and the inner query is actually materialized into a temporary table.

SQLite data retrieve with select taking too long

I have created a table with sqlite for my corona/lua app. It's a hashtable with ~=700 000 values.The table has two columns, which are the hashcode (a string), and the value (another string). During the program I need to get data several times by providing the hashcode.
I'm using something like this code to get the data:
for p in db:nrows([[SELECT * FROM test WHERE id=']].."hashcode"..[[';]]) do
print(p)
-- p = returned value --
end
This statement is though taking insanely too much time to perform
thanks,
Edit:
Success!
the mistake was with the primare key thing.I set the hashcode as the primary key like below and the retrieve time whent to normal:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS test (id STRING PRIMARY KEY , array);
I also prepared the statements in advance as you said:
stmt = db:prepare("SELECT * FROM test WHERE id = ?;")
[...]
stmt:bind(1,s)
for p in stmt:nrows() do
The only problem was that the db file size,that was around 18 MB, went to 29,5 MB
You should create the table with id as a unique primary key; this will automatically make an index.
create table if not exists test
(
id text primary key,
val text
);
You should not construct statements using string concatenation; this is a security issue so avoid getting in this habit. Also, you should prepare statements in advance, at program initialization, and run the prepared statements.
Something like this... initially:
hashcode_query_stmt = db:prepare("SELECT * FROM test WHERE id = ?;")
then for each use:
hashcode_query_stmt:bind_values(hashcode)
for p in hashcode_query_stmt:urows() do ... end
Ensure that there is an index on the id/hashcode column? Without one such queries will be slow, slow, slow. This index should probably be unique.
If only selecting the value/hashcode (SELECT value FROM ..), it may be beneficial to have a covering index over (id, value) as that can avoid additional seeking to the row data (see SQLite Query Planning). Try it with and without such a covering index.
Also, it may be worthwhile to employ caching if the same hashcodes are queried multiple times.
As already stated, get sure you have an index on ID.
If you can't change table schema now, you can add a index ad hoc:
CREATE INDEX test_id ON test (id);
About hashes: if you are computing hashes in your software to speed up searches, don't!
SQLite will use your supplied hashes as any regular string/blob. Also, RDBMS are optimized for efficient searching, which may be greatly improved with indexes.
Unless your hashing to save space, you are wasting processor time computing hashes in your application.

Determine flyway variables from earlier SQL step

I'd like to use flyway for a DB update with the situation that an DB already exists with productive data in it. The problem I'm looking at now (and I did not find a nice solution yet), is the following:
There is an existing DB table with numeric IDs, e.g.
create table objects ( obj_id number, ...)
There is a sequence "obj_seq" to allocate new obj_ids
During my DB migration I need to introduce a few new objects, hence I need new
object IDs. However I do not know at development time, what ID
numbers these will be
There is a DB trigger which later references these IDs. To improve performance I'd like to avoid determine the actual IDs every time the trigger runs but rather put the IDs directly into the trigger
Example (very simplified) of what I have in mind:
insert into objects (obj_id, ...) values (obj_seq.nextval, ...)
select obj_seq.currval from dual
-> store this in variable "newID"
create trigger on some_other_table
when new.id = newID
...
Now, is it possible to dynamically determine/use such variables? I have seen the flyway placeholders but my understanding is that I cannot set them dynamically as in the example above.
I could use a Java-based migration script and do whatever string magic I like - so, that would be a way of doing it, but maybe there is a more elegant way using SQL?
Many thx!!
tge
If the table you are updating contains only reference data, get rid of the sequence and assign the IDs manually.
If it contains a mix of reference and user data, you need to select the id based on values in other columns.

Hierarchical Database Select / Insert Statement (SQL Server)

I have recently stumbled upon a problem with selecting relationship details from a 1 table and inserting into another table, i hope someone can help.
I have a table structure as follows:
ID (PK) Name ParentID<br>
1 Myname 0<br>
2 nametwo 1<br>
3 namethree 2
e.g
This is the table i need to select from and get all the relationship data. As there could be unlimited number of sub links (is there a function i can create for this to create the loop ?)
Then once i have all the data i need to insert into another table and the ID's will now have to change as the id's must go in order (e.g. i cannot have id "2" be a sub of 3 for example), i am hoping i can use the same function for selecting to do the inserting.
If you are using SQL Server 2005 or above, you may use recursive queries to get your information. Here is an example:
With tree (id, Name, ParentID, [level])
As (
Select id, Name, ParentID, 1
From [myTable]
Where ParentID = 0
Union All
Select child.id
,child.Name
,child.ParentID
,parent.[level] + 1 As [level]
From [myTable] As [child]
Inner Join [tree] As [parent]
On [child].ParentID = [parent].id)
Select * From [tree];
This query will return the row requested by the first portion (Where ParentID = 0) and all sub-rows recursively. Does this help you?
I'm not sure I understand what you want to have happen with your insert. Can you provide more information in terms of the expected result when you are done?
Good luck!
For the retrieval part, you can take a look at Common Table Expression. This feature can provide recursive operation using SQL.
For the insertion part, you can use the CTE above to regenerate the ID, and insert accordingly.
I hope this URL helps Self-Joins in SQL
This is the problem of finding the transitive closure of a graph in sql. SQL does not support this directly, which leaves you with three common strategies:
use a vendor specific SQL extension
store the Materialized Path from the root to the given node in each row
store the Nested Sets, that is the interval covered by the subtree rooted at a given node when nodes are labeled depth first
The first option is straightforward, and if you don't need database portability is probably the best. The second and third options have the advantage of being plain SQL, but require maintaining some de-normalized state. Updating a table that uses materialized paths is simple, but for fast queries your database must support indexes for prefix queries on string values. Nested sets avoid needing any string indexing features, but can require updating a lot of rows as you insert or remove nodes.
If you're fine with always using MSSQL, I'd use the vendor specific option Adrian mentioned.

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