How should my onUpgrade() method look like?

Question

You can see my database helper class below. I use prepopulated sqlite database imported in assets folder. Whenever I add a table to my existing database, I get no such table error if my app is already installed on my phone. I guess my onUpgrade() method is now so good. It works, don't get me wrong, when I change some data to existing tables, I increase db version and it gets updated. But if I add a table I get error.

public class DataBaseHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper
{
private static String TAG = "DataBaseHelper"; // Tag just for the LogCat window
//destination path (location) of our database on device
private static String DB_PATH = "/data/data/rs.androidaplikacije.themostcompleteiqtest/databases/"; 
private static String DB_NAME ="pitanja.sqlite";// Database name
private static SQLiteDatabase mDataBase; 
private final Context mContext;
private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 3;

public DataBaseHelper(Context mojContext) 
{
    super(mojContext, DB_NAME, null, 3);// 1 it's Database Version
    DB_PATH = mojContext.getApplicationInfo().dataDir + "/databases/";
    this.mContext = mojContext;
}

public void createDataBase() throws IOException
{
    //If database not exists copy it from the assets


        this.getReadableDatabase();
        this.close();
        try 
        {
            //Copy the database from assests
            copyDataBase();
            Log.e(TAG, "createDatabase database created");
        } 
        catch (IOException mIOException) 
        {
            throw new Error("ErrorCopyingDataBase");
        }
    }

/**
 * Check if the database already exist to avoid re-copying the file each time you open the application.
 * @return true if it exists, false if it doesn't
 */
public boolean checkDataBase(){

SQLiteDatabase checkDB = null;

try{
String myPath = DB_PATH + DB_NAME;
checkDB = SQLiteDatabase.openDatabase(myPath, null, SQLiteDatabase.OPEN_READONLY);

}catch(SQLiteException e){

//database does't exist yet.

}

if(checkDB != null){

checkDB.close();

}

return checkDB != null ? true : false;
}
    /*Check that the database exists here: /data/data/your package/databases/Da Name
    private boolean checkDataBase()
    {
        File dbFile = new File(DB_PATH + DB_NAME);
        //Log.v("dbFile", dbFile + "   "+ dbFile.exists());
        return dbFile.exists();
    }
    */

    //Copy the database from assets
    private void copyDataBase() throws IOException
    {
        InputStream mInput = mContext.getAssets().open(DB_NAME);
        String outFileName = DB_PATH + DB_NAME;
        OutputStream mOutput = new FileOutputStream(outFileName);
        byte[] mBuffer = new byte[1024];
        int mLength;
        while ((mLength = mInput.read(mBuffer))>0)
        {
            mOutput.write(mBuffer, 0, mLength);
        }
        mOutput.flush();
        mOutput.close();
        mInput.close();
    }

    //Open the database, so we can query it
    public boolean openDataBase() throws SQLException
    {
        String mPath = DB_PATH + DB_NAME;
        //Log.v("mPath", mPath);
        mDataBase = SQLiteDatabase.openDatabase(mPath, null, SQLiteDatabase.CREATE_IF_NECESSARY);
        //mDataBase = SQLiteDatabase.openDatabase(mPath, null, SQLiteDatabase.NO_LOCALIZED_COLLATORS);
        return mDataBase != null;
    }
    @Override
    public void close() 
    {
        if(mDataBase != null)
            mDataBase.close();
        super.close();
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase arg0) {
        }

    @Override
    public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase arg0, int arg1, int arg2) {
        try {
            // delete existing?

            // Copy the db from assests
            copyDataBase();
            Log.e(TAG, "database updated");
        } catch (IOException mIOException) {
            Log.e(TAG, mIOException.toString());
            try {
                throw mIOException;
            } catch (IOException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }

}

Answer 1

There's 2 ways to do onUpgrade, depending on your app.

1)Drop all your old tables, then run onCreate. THis basically wipes out all your old data and starts over. Its a good technique if you can regenerate the old data somehow, or just don't care about it.

2)Carefully maintain a diff of your schema between each released version, and write SQL statements to make the proper changes between them- add new tables, alter existing tables to add/remove columns, etc. This is time consuming and fragile, so use this only if you need to keep data between those versions.