Store custom objects (User defined obj) in SQLite Android database

Question

How can I store my custom object in a database ? To be more clear how do I write these statements.

To create a table, 1.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS MY_TABLE(
        _id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT, customObject ??? NOT NULL);

What goes in the ????

To retrieve from a cursor,

2. MyObject obj = cursor.get???? What method can I use to get my stored object.

I googled a lot, but no luck. Do I need to store a serializable object? how?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

How can I store my custom object in a database ?

You don't, unless you are using an object database. You store a representation of the object in a database.

What goes in the ????

That depends on what your representation is. If you convert the object to XML or JSON, it would be TEXT. If you convert the object to a byte array (e.g., Serializable), you would use BLOB.

What method can I use to get my stored object.

That depends on what your representation is. If you converted the object to XML or JSON, use getString(). If you converted the object to a byte array, use getBlob().

Most developers would not do any of this, but rather would store the attributes of the object as individual columns, to allow for the greatest possible flexibility in querying the database.