Working with ResultSets in Java

Question

I've ran into a problem of having to run a number of different queries on the DB (different return types, different number of columns, etc). While writing that i started to wonder if there's a proper way of writing a helper function. It seemed that it's really easy to write a function that returns a ResultSet.

However since it a) doesn't close connection b) doesn't close the result set it seems as a possibly working, but improper solution. Is there any place to dump in all results so that they can be returned safely.

(Only thing i could come up with, is just returning a 2D string array (after converting all data to strings) and then converting it all back)

EDIT : Sorry for not writing clear, was wondering if there's any way to just store the result of the query as is (don't need to modify it) without writing a separate method for every possible return type.

The idea behind a 2d string list is being able to store the query values as is.

Col1 Row1 | Col2 Row1 | Col3 Row1
Col1 Row2 | Col2 Row2 | Col3 Row2

EDIT 2 Thank you for replies, i guess i'll just write a small parser for it.

Answer 1

You can write helper functions that parse a ResultSet and convert it into an ArrayList or an array or even the fields of an object. For instance, lets say you have a table of orders and then a query returns all of the rows of that table for a particular user (customer). We could then do something like this:

static List<Order> parseOrder(ResultSet rs) {
   ArrayList<Order> orderList = new ArrayList<>();
   while(rs.next() ) {
      Order order = new Order();
      order.setID(rs.getInt(1));
      order.setCustomerID(rs.getInt(2));
      order.setItemName(rs.getString(3));
      orderList.add(order);
  }
  return orderList;

}

Simply turning the result set into an array of an array of Objects would be more general, but probably less useful.

I would leave it up to the calling function to close this ResultSet and possible the PreparedStatement (or Statement) and database connection.

Answer 2

You shouldn't be returning resultSets, you should read the results from the resultset into some kind of container object. A ResultSet is a wrapper around a database cursor, it goes away when the connection closes. It's something you read from and close right away, not something you can pass around your application.

Look at how spring-jdbc does it. You implement a resultSetMapper that is passed to the method on the JdbcTemplate.

Several observations:

• You don't need to use Spring to use spring-jdbc. However, I see very little value in reimplementing this stuff yourself.

• It's not the job of the code that reads the ResultSet to open and close connections, that needs to be elsewhere.

Answer 3

I'd recommend looking at Spring JDBC. Don't write such a thing yourself. It's already been done, and quite well.

For example, I don't like your idea of returning a List of Strings. You lose a lot of info that way. I'd return a Map of Lists (column view) or List of Maps (row view).

If you must, here are some database utilities that would get you started.

package persistence;

import java.sql.*;
import java.util.*;

/**
 * util.DatabaseUtils
 * User: Michael
 * Date: Aug 17, 2010
 * Time: 7:58:02 PM
 */
public class DatabaseUtils {
/*
    private static final String DEFAULT_DRIVER = "oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver";
    private static final String DEFAULT_URL = "jdbc:oracle:thin:@host:1521:database";
    private static final String DEFAULT_USERNAME = "username";
    private static final String DEFAULT_PASSWORD = "password";
*/
/*
    private static final String DEFAULT_DRIVER = "org.postgresql.Driver";
    private static final String DEFAULT_URL = "jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/party";
    private static final String DEFAULT_USERNAME = "pgsuper";
    private static final String DEFAULT_PASSWORD = "pgsuper";
*/
    private static final String DEFAULT_DRIVER = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver";
    private static final String DEFAULT_URL = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/party";
    private static final String DEFAULT_USERNAME = "party";
    private static final String DEFAULT_PASSWORD = "party";

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        long begTime = System.currentTimeMillis();

        String driver = ((args.length > 0) ? args[0] : DEFAULT_DRIVER);
        String url = ((args.length > 1) ? args[1] : DEFAULT_URL);
        String username = ((args.length > 2) ? args[2] : DEFAULT_USERNAME);
        String password = ((args.length > 3) ? args[3] : DEFAULT_PASSWORD);

        Connection connection = null;

        try {
            connection = createConnection(driver, url, username, password);
            DatabaseMetaData meta = connection.getMetaData();
            System.out.println(meta.getDatabaseProductName());
            System.out.println(meta.getDatabaseProductVersion());

            String sqlQuery = "SELECT PERSON_ID, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME FROM PERSON ORDER BY LAST_NAME";
            System.out.println("before insert: " + query(connection, sqlQuery, Collections.EMPTY_LIST));

            connection.setAutoCommit(false);
            String sqlUpdate = "INSERT INTO PERSON(FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME) VALUES(?,?)";
            List parameters = Arrays.asList("Foo", "Bar");
            int numRowsUpdated = update(connection, sqlUpdate, parameters);
            connection.commit();

            System.out.println("# rows inserted: " + numRowsUpdated);
            System.out.println("after insert: " + query(connection, sqlQuery, Collections.EMPTY_LIST));
        } catch (Exception e) {
            rollback(connection);
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            close(connection);
            long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
            System.out.println("wall time: " + (endTime - begTime) + " ms");
        }
    }

    public static Connection createConnection(String driver, String url, String username, String password) throws ClassNotFoundException, SQLException {
        Class.forName(driver);
        if ((username == null) || (password == null) || (username.trim().length() == 0) || (password.trim().length() == 0)) {
            return DriverManager.getConnection(url);
        } else {
            return DriverManager.getConnection(url, username, password);
        }
    }

    public static void close(Connection connection) {
        try {
            if (connection != null) {
                connection.close();
            }
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }


    public static void close(Statement st) {
        try {
            if (st != null) {
                st.close();
            }
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public static void close(ResultSet rs) {
        try {
            if (rs != null) {
                rs.close();
            }
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public static void rollback(Connection connection) {
        try {
            if (connection != null) {
                connection.rollback();
            }
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public static List<Map<String, Object>> map(ResultSet rs) throws SQLException {
        List<Map<String, Object>> results = new ArrayList<Map<String, Object>>();
        try {
            if (rs != null) {
                ResultSetMetaData meta = rs.getMetaData();
                int numColumns = meta.getColumnCount();
                while (rs.next()) {
                    Map<String, Object> row = new HashMap<String, Object>();
                    for (int i = 1; i <= numColumns; ++i) {
                        String name = meta.getColumnName(i);
                        Object value = rs.getObject(i);
                        row.put(name, value);
                    }
                    results.add(row);
                }
            }
        } finally {
            close(rs);
        }
        return results;
    }

    public static List<Map<String, Object>> query(Connection connection, String sql, List<Object> parameters) throws SQLException {
        List<Map<String, Object>> results = null;
        PreparedStatement ps = null;
        ResultSet rs = null;
        try {
            ps = connection.prepareStatement(sql);

            int i = 0;
            for (Object parameter : parameters) {
                ps.setObject(++i, parameter);
            }
            rs = ps.executeQuery();
            results = map(rs);
        } finally {
            close(rs);
            close(ps);
        }
        return results;
    }

    public static int update(Connection connection, String sql, List<Object> parameters) throws SQLException {
        int numRowsUpdated = 0;
        PreparedStatement ps = null;
        try {
            ps = connection.prepareStatement(sql);

            int i = 0;
            for (Object parameter : parameters) {
                ps.setObject(++i, parameter);
            }
            numRowsUpdated = ps.executeUpdate();
        } finally {
            close(ps);
        }
        return numRowsUpdated;
    }
}