SQLite - Is it possible to insert a BLOB via insert statement?

Question

I'm developing an Android application and i'm using a Sqlite database to store some bitmaps. I want some images to be automatically inserted when the user installs the application.

I'm using the SQLiteOpenHelper class like this:

public class DatabaseHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {

...

DatabaseHelper(Context context, String nameOfDB, int version, String[] scriptSQLCreate,
        String scriptSQLDelete) {
    super(context, nameOfDB, null, version);

    this.scriptSQLCreate = scriptSQLCreate;
    this.scriptSQLDelete = scriptSQLDelete;
}

@Override
public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
    int numScripts = scriptSQLCreate.length;
    for(int i = 0; i<numScripts; i++){
    Log.i(TAG,"Creating database, executing script " + i);
    db.execSQL(scriptSQLCreate[i]);
    }
}
}

...

I want to pass a constant to the scriptSQLCreate parameter shown above that would be like so:

private static final String[] SCRIPT_DATABASE_CREATE = {
   "create table memes(  id integer primary key autoincrement," + 
                     + " img blob not null," + 
                     + " name text not null unique)" ,
   "insert into memes(img,name) values(BITMAP1,'1.jpg')",
   "insert into memes(img,name) values(BITMAP2,'2.jpg')",
   "insert into memes(img,name) values(BITMAP3,'3.jpg')"}    

}

Any help will be much apreciated,

Thx, Tulio Zahn

Answer 1

If you really, really want to you can use a very long hex literal as a blob literal:

insert into memes(img, name) values(X'0102030405060708090a0b0c0d0e0f', '1.jpg')

However, this is usually a bad idea; instead, go look at parameterised queries. They will let you compile a statement once using placeholders instead of actual values, and then reuse it many times, filling in the placeholders as needed:

SQLiteStatement p = sqlite.compileStatement("insert into memes(img, name) values(?, ?)");

byte[] data = loadData("1.jpg");
p.bindBlob(1, data);
p.bindString(2, "1.jpg");
p.execute();

byte[] data = loadData("2.jpg");
p.bindBlob(1, data);
p.bindString(2, "2.jpg");
p.execute();

(Warning --- code not tested.)

In general you should be using parameterised queries everywhere, as they're a sure-fire way to avoid SQL injection attacks, plus are usually easier and clearer. Assembling SQL queries by glueing strings together should be avoided at all costs.