Get databases directory for my app programmatically

Question

I want to use a "pre loaded" database in my app. There are tons of questions about this and most point to this blog article here or similars.

So far so good. I just want to know if there is a better way to get the default databases directory so you don't have to use something like this:

private static String DB_PATH = "/data/data/YOUR_PACKAGE/databases/";

I mean, maybe that is changed in the future or maybe a device or rom could place it elsewhere... so is there a way to get this path programatically?

In Context exists a method to getDatabasePath(name), but you need to give it an existing db name and well... it doesn't exist yet, I want to move it there :P

Answer 1

I used...

String destPath = getFilesDir().getPath();
destPath = destPath.substring(0, destPath.lastIndexOf("/")) + "/databases";

Answer 2

Create an empty DB, get the path with getDatabasePath(), then overwrite it with your own.

Answer 3

Used by SQLiteAssetHelper:

 String path = mContext.getDatabasePath(mName).getPath();

At this time, the database doesn't exist. I think the String just takes the internal path and adds the appropriate modifiers. In fact, this seems to work just fine:

context.getDatabasePath("a").getParentFile()

Basically, you don't need to have a real database created, just ask it for one.