How to insert only 3 columns data in room database table if we have more columns?

Question

I have a project that I wrote in kotlin. I want to insert data in different columns of the same table on different pages. I have specified these columns in the dataclass, but it gives a null data error.

In order to make this insert process more healthy, should I divide the table into two separate tables or send static 'null' data and update these fields?

Answer 1

In a database, such as SQLite (which Room is a wrapper around), the unit of insertion is a row.

A row will consist of the same number of columns. You cannot insert a column on it's own, other than if you ALTER the table to add or remove a column, when the change is reflected throughout the entire table.

• if adding a column then a DEFAULT VALUE must be provided, this could be the default/implicit value of null or another specific value.
• Room with Kotlin will apply a constraint (rule) of NOT NULL unless nulls are specifically allowed using for example ?
  • var theColumn: Int has the implicit NOT NULL
  • var theColumn: Int? does not have the implicit NOT NULL and nulls can be stored
  • var theColumn: Int=-1 will apply a default value of -1 in the absence of the field not being supplied a value when instantiating the object.
  • var theColumn: Int?=null will apply null in the absence of the field not being supplied a value when instantiating the object.
    • obviously fields may be altered before inserting the object, if var rather than val is used.

The data stored in the column can be interpreted to represent whatever you wish, often NULL will be used to represent a special situation such as no value.

If using an @Insert annotated function, then ALL columns are applied the values as obtained from the object or objects passed to the function. In Kotlin whether or not NULLs can be used is dependent upon the field definition or in some cases the @NonNull annotation.

@Insert indicates what is termed as a convenience method, it actually builds the underlying SQL along with binding the values using the SQLite API.

However, if you want flexibility, then an @Query annotation with suitable INSERT SQL statement can be used.

eg you could perhaps have a table that has 4 columns COL1, COL2, COL3 and COL4 and only apply some of the columns (the DEFAULT VALUE will be applied to the other column if specified, if not the NULL but if there is a NOT NULL constraint then a conflict would be raised).

So to insert when only two of the columns (COL2 and COL4) then you could use:-

@Query("INSERT INTO theTable (COL2,COL4) VALUES(:valueForCol2,:valueForCol4)")
fun insertCol2AndCol4Only(valueForCol2: Int, valueForCol4: Int?)

Note that valueForCol4 could be NULL. However, whether or not a NULL will result in a conflict depends upon how the field is defined in the @Entity annotated class.

Conflicts (breaking a rule) can be handled by SQLite, depending upon the type of the conflict. UNIQUE, PRIMARY KEY (which is really a UNIQUE conflict), CHECK (Room doesn't cater for CHECK constraints) and NOT NULL constraints can be handled in various ways at the SQLite level.

A common use of conflict handling is to IGNORE the conflict, in which case the action (INSERT or UPDATE) is ignored. In the case of INSERT the row is not inserted but SQLite ignores the conflict and doesn't issue an error.

So if for example COL4's field was var COL4: Int and not var COL4: Int? then the insert would fail and an SQlite Exception would occurr.

However if instead

@Query("INSERT OR IGNORE INTO theTable (COL2,COL4) VALUES(:valueForCol2,:valueForCol4)")

were used and the COL4 field were defined as var COL4: Int (implied NOT NULL constraint) then the conflict if NULL was passed as valueForCol4 then the row would not be inserted but no failure would occur as the NOT NULL conflict would be ignored.

With the @Insert annotation you can defined this conflict handling via the onConflictStrategy parameter eg @Insert(onConflictStrategy=OnConflict.IGNORE)

You may wish to consider reading the following:-

• The On Conflict Clause
• INSERT

In order to make this insert process more healthy, should I divide the table into two separate tables or send static 'null' data and update these fields?

Note the above is only a summary, INTEGER PRIMARY KEY aka @PrimaryKey var id: Long?=null or variations such as @PrimaryKey(autoGenerate=true) etc has specifically not been discussed.

The design of the database could be handled either way, from the very limited description of the scenario, a most likely suitable scenario cannot really be advised, although either could probably be an approach.