Why use SQLiteOpenHelper over SQLiteDatabase?

Question

In my activity I have for example

SQLiteDatabase db = openOrCreateDatabase(Preferences.DB_NAME, Context.MODE_PRIVATE, null); db.execSQL("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS data (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, value VARCHAR)"); Cursor dbResult = db.rawQuery("SELECT value FROM data", null); // do sometning with cursors dbResult.close(); db.close(); 

What's the benefit of using SQLiteOpenHelper like

DatabaseHelper helper = new DatabaseHelper(this); SQLiteDatabase db = helper.getWriteableDatabase(); SQLiteDatabase db_2 = helper.getReadableDatabase(); Cursor dbResult = db_2.rawQuery("SELECT value FROM data", null); // do sometning with cursors dbResult.close(); helper.close(); 

Class itself

public class DatabaseHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {     public DatabaseHelper(Context context) {         super(context, Preferences.DB_NAME, null, Preferences.DB_VERSION);     }      @Override     public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {         String query = "CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS data (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, value VARCHAR)";         db.execSQL(query);         db.close();     }      @Override     public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {     } } 

Answer 1

SQLiteDatabase

SQLiteDatabase has methods to create, delete, execute SQL commands, and perform other common database management tasks.

SQLiteOpenHelper

A helper class to manage database creation and version management.

I will say this much, the onUpgrade that comes with SQLiteOpenHelper comes in REALLY handy when upgrading your application. It's mainly for creation and upgrading / version management. SQLiteDatabase is mainly for CRUD operations (you can create with it but that is what SQLiteOpenHelper is for).

Answer 2

SQLiteOpenHelper provides utilities to simplify the tasks of creating and initialising the database if it's not already created and converting the contents of the database when your application is upgrading and the database schema changes.

If you have a very simple database schema, then it doesn't really get you much, but for anything complicated it's a definite help. It makes sure that all the fiddly edge conditions are covered so that you don't have to, such as putting transactions in all the right places to avoid database corruption.