如果以后要按多个属性搜索对象，该如何存储对象？

Question

I want to code a simple project in java in order to keep track of my watched/owned tv shows, movies, books, etc. Searching and retrieving the metadata from an API (themovieDB, Google Books) is already working.

How would I store some of this metadata together with user-input (like progress or rating)?

I'm planning on displaying the data in a table like form ( example ). Users should also be able to search the local data with multiple attributes. Is there any easy way to do this? I already thought about a database since it seemed that was the easiest solution.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You can use lightweight database as H2 , HSQLDB or SqlLite . These databases can be embedded in the Java app itself and does not require extra server.
If your data is less, you can also save it in XML or Json by using any XMLParser or JsonParser (eg Gson()).

Your DB table will have various attributes which are fetched from API as well as user inputs. You can write query on the top of these DBs to fetch and show the various results.

Answer 2

There are many ways to accomplish this but as another user posted, a database is the clear choice.

However, if you're looking to make a program to learn with or something simple for personal use, you could also use a multi dimensional array of strings to hold the name of the program, as well as any other metadata fields and treat the array like a table in excel. This is not the best way to do it, but you can get away with it with very simple code. To search you would only need to loop through the array elements and check that the name of the program (ie movieArray[x][0] matches the search string. Once located you can perform actions or edit the other array indexes pertaining to that movie.

For a little more versatility, you would create a class to hold the movie information with fields to hold any metadata. The advantage here is that the metadata fields can be different types rather than having to conform to the array type, and their packaged together in the instance of the class. If you're getting the info from an API then you can update or create the classes from the API response. These objects can be stored in an ArrayList and searched with a loop that checks for a certain value ie

for (Movie M : movieArrayList){
   if(m.getTitle().equals("Arrival")){
      return m;
  }
}

Alternatively of course for large scale, a database would be the best answer but it all depends what this is really for and what it's needs will be in the real world.

Answer 3

Either write everything to files, or store everything on a database. It depends on what you want though.

If you choose to write everything to files, you'll have to implement both the writing and the reading to suit your needs. You'll also have to deal with read/write bugs and performance issues yourself.

If you choose a database, you'll just have to implement the high level read and write methods, ie, the methods that format the data and store it on the appropriate tables. The actual reading and writing is already implemented and optimized for performance.

Overall, databases are usually the smart choice. Although, be careful of which one you choose. Some types might be better for reading, while others are better for writting. You should carefully evaluate what's best, given your problem's domain.