I'm attempting to do the following SQL query within Android:
String names = "'name1', 'name2"; // in the code this is dynamically generated
String query = "SELECT * FROM table WHERE name IN (?)";
Cursor cursor = mDb.rawQuery(query, new String[]{names});
Android does not replace the question mark with the correct values. I could do the following, however this does not protect against SQL injection:
String query = "SELECT * FROM table WHERE name IN (" + names + ")";
Cursor cursor = mDb.rawQuery(query, null);
How can I parametrize the IN clause?
A string of the form "?, ?, ..., ?"
can be a dynamically created string and safely put into the original SQL query (because it is a restricted form that does not contain external data) and then the placeholders can be used as normal.
Consider a function String makePlaceholders(int len)
which returns len
question-marks separated with commas, then:
String[] names = { "name1", "name2" }; // do whatever is needed first
String query = "SELECT * FROM table"
+ " WHERE name IN (" + makePlaceholders(names.length) + ")";
Cursor cursor = mDb.rawQuery(query, names);
Just make sure to pass exactly as many values as places. The default maximum limit of host parameters in SQLite is 999 - at least in a normal build, not sure about Android :)
Here is one implementation:
String makePlaceholders(int len) {
if (len < 1) {
// It will lead to an invalid query anyway ..
throw new RuntimeException("No placeholders");
} else {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(len * 2 - 1);
sb.append("?");
for (int i = 1; i < len; i++) {
sb.append(",?");
}
return sb.toString();
}
}