Why does PreparedStatement.setNull requires sqlType? - java

According to the java docs of PreparedStatement.setNull: "Note: You must specify the parameter's SQL type". What is the reason that the method requires the SQL type of the column?
I noticed that passing java.sql.Types.VARCHAR also works for non-varchar columns. Are there scenarios in which VARCHAR won't be suitable (certain column types or certain DB providers)?
Thanks.

According to the java docs of
PreparedStatement.setNull: "Note: You
must specify the parameter's SQL
type". What is the reason that the
method requires the SQL type of the
column?
For maximum compatibility; as per the specification, there are some databases which don't allow untyped NULL to be sent to the underlying data source.
I noticed that passing
java.sql.Types.VARCHAR also works for
non-varchar columns. Are there
scenarios in which VARCHAR won't be
suitable (certain column types or
certain DB providers)?
I don't think that sort of behaviour really is part of the specification or if it is, then I'm sure there is some sort of implicit coercion going on there. In any case, relying on such sort of behaviour which might break when the underlying datastore changes is not recommended. Why not just specify the correct type?

JDBC drivers appear to be moving away from setNull. See Add support for setObject(<arg>, null).
My list of databases supporting the more logical behaviour is:
Oracle
MySQL
Sybase
MS SQL Server
HSQL
My list of databases NOT supporting this logical behaviour is:
Derby Queries with guarded null Parameter fail
PostgreSQL Cannot pass null in Parameter in Query for ISNULL Suggested solution

When it comes to Oracle it would be very unwise to use varchar2 towards other datatypes. This might fool the optimizer and you could get an bad execution plan. For instance filtering on a date column using a timestamp datatype in your bind, Oracle could end up reading all your rows converting all dates to timestamp, then filtering out the wanted rows.
If you have a index on your date column, it could even get worse (if oracle chose to use it) - doing single reads on your oracle blocks.
--Lasse

Related

Java JOOQ multiple tables query

I have a problem.
I have the following query:
SELECT
Agents.Owner,
Orders.*
FROM
Orders
INNER JOIN Agents ON Agents.id = Orders.agentid
WHERE
Agents.botstate = 'Active' AND Orders.state = 'Active' AND(
Orders.status = 'Failed' OR Orders.status = 'Processing' AND Orders.DateTimeInProgressMicro < DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 10 SECOND))
ORDER BY
Orders.agentid
But now I need to convert this to JOOQ language. This is what I came up with:
create.select()
.from(DSL.table("Orders"))
.join(DSL.table("Agents"))
.on(DSL.table("Agents").field("Id").eq(DSL.table("Orders").field("AgentId")))
.where(DSL.table("Agents").field("botstate").eq("Active")
.and(DSL.table("Orders").field("state").eq("Active"))
.and((DSL.table("Orders").field("status").eq("Failed"))
.or(DSL.table("Orders").field("status").eq("Processing")))).fetch().sortAsc(DSL.table("Orders").field("AgentId"));
Now the first problem is that it doesn't like all the .eq() statements, because it gives me the error:
Cannot resolve method: eq(Java.lang.String). And my second problem is that I don't know how to write this statement in JOOQ: Orders.DateTimeInProgressMicro < DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 10 SECOND).
The first problem is caused by the fact that I can't just use:
.on(Agents.Id).eq(Orders.AgentId)
But instead I need to enter for every table:
DSL.table("table_name")
And for every column:
DSL.field("column_name")
Without that it doesn't recognize my tables and columns
How can I write the SQL in the JOOQ version correctly or an alternative solution is that I can use normal SQL statements?
Why doesn't your code work?
Table.field(String) does not construct a path expression of the form table.field. It tries to dereference a known field from Table. If Table doesn't have any known fields (e.g. in the case of using DSL.table(String), then there are no fields to dereference.
Correct plain SQL API usage
There are two types of API that allow for working with dynamic SQL fragments:
The plain SQL API to construct plain SQL fragments and templates
The Name API to construct identifiers and jOOQ types from identifiers
Most people use these only when generated code isn't possible (see below), or jOOQ is missing some support for vendor-specific functionality (e.g. some built-in function).
Here's how to write your query with each:
Plain SQL API
The advantage of this API is that you can use arbitrary SQL fragments including vendor specific function calls that are unknown to jOOQ. There's a certain risk of running into syntax errors, SQL injection (!), and simple data type problems, because jOOQ won't know the data types unless you tell jOOQ explicitly
// as always, this static import is implied:
import static org.jooq.impl.DSL.*;
And then:
create.select()
.from("orders") // or table("orders")
.join("agents") // or table("agents")
.on(field("agents.id").eq(field("orders.id")))
.where(field("agents.botstate").eq("Active"))
.and(field("orders.state").eq("Active"))
.and(field("orders.status").in("Failed", "Processing"))
.orderBy(field("orders.agentid"))
.fetch();
Sometimes it is useful to tell jOOQ about data types explicitly, e.g. when using these expressions in SELECT, or when creating bind variables:
// Use the default SQLDataType for a Java class
field("agents.id", Integer.class);
// Use an explicit SQLDataType
field("agents.id", SQLDataType.INTEGER);
Name API
This API allows for constructing identifiers (by default quoted, but you can configure that, or use unquotedName()). If the identifiers are quoted, the SQL injection risk is avoided, but then in most dialects, you need to get case sensitivity right.
create.select()
.from(table(name("orders")))
.join(table(name("agents")))
.on(field(name("agents", "id")).eq(field(name("orders", "id"))))
.where(field(name("agents", "botstate")).eq("Active"))
.and(field(name("orders", "state")).eq("Active"))
.and(field(name("orders", "status")).in("Failed", "Processing"))
.orderBy(field(name("orders", "agentid")))
.fetch();
Using the code generator
Some use cases prevent using jOOQ's code generator, e.g. when working with dynamic schemas that are only known at runtime. In all other cases, it is very strongly recommended to use the code generator. Not only will building your SQL statements with jOOQ be much easier in general, you will also not run into problems like the one you're presenting here.
Your query would read:
create.select()
.from(ORDERS)
.join(AGENTS)
.on(AGENTS.ID.eq(ORDERS.ID))
.where(AGENTS.BOTSTATE.eq("Active"))
.and(ORDERS.STATE.eq("Active"))
.and(ORDERS.STATUS.in("Failed", "Processing"))
.orderBy(ORDERS.AGENTID)
.fetch();
Benefits:
All tables and columns are type checked by your Java compiler
You can use IDE auto completion on your schema objects
You never run into SQL injection problems or syntax errors
Your code stops compiling as soon as you rename a column, or change a data type, etc.
When fetching your data, you already know the data type as well
Your bind variables are bound using the correct type without you having to specify it explicitly
Remember that both the plain SQL API and the identifier API were built for cases where the schema is not known at compile time, or schema elements need to be accessed dynamically for any other reason. They are low level APIs, to be avoided when code generation is an option.

User-defined types in Apache Derby as ENUM replacements

I'm using Apache Derby as an in-memory mock database for unit testing some code that works with MySQL using jOOQ.
The production database uses enums for certain fields (this is a given and out of scope of this question - I know enums are bad but I can't change this part now), so jOOQ generates code to handle the enums.
Unfortunately, Derby does not support enums and when I try to create the database in Derby (from jOOQ SQL generator), I get errors.
My solution was to user-defined types that mimic the enum by wrapping the relevant jOOQ generated enum Java class. So, for example, if I have an enum field kind in the table stuffs, jOOQ SQL generator creates Derby table creation SQL that talks about stuffs_kind.
To support this I created the class my.project.tests.StuffsKindDebyEnum that wraps the jOOQ generated enum type my.project.model.StuffsKind. I then run the following SQL through Derby, before running the jOOQ database creation SQL:
CREATE TYPE stuffs_kind EXTERNAL NAME 'my.project.tests.StuffsKindDerbyEnum' LANGUAGE JAVA
When I then use jOOQ to insert new records, jOOQ generates SQL that looks somewhat like this:
insert into "schema"."stuffs" ("text", "kind")
values (cast (? as varchar(32672)), cast(? as stuffs_kind)
But binds a string value to the kind argument (as expected), and it work for MySQL but with Derby I get an exception:
java.sql.SQLDataException: An attempt was made to get a data value of type
'"APP"."STUFFS_KIND"' from a data value of type 'VARCHAR'
After looking at all kinds of ways to solve this problem (including trying to treat enums as simple VARCHARs), and before I give up on being able to test my jOOQ-using code, is there a way to get Derby to "cast" varchar into user-defined types? If could put some Java code that can handle that, it will not be a problem as I can simply do StuffsKind.valueOf(value) to convert a string to the correct enum type, but after perusing the (very minimal) Derby documentation, I can't figure out if it is even should be possible.
Any ideas are welcome!
Implementing a dialect sensitive custom data type binding:
The proper way forward here would be to use a dialect sensitive, custom data type binding:
https://www.jooq.org/doc/latest/manual/sql-building/queryparts/custom-bindings
The binding could then implement, e.g. the bind variable SQL generation as follows:
#Override
public void sql(BindingSQLContext<StuffsKindDerbyEnum> ctx) throws SQLException {
if (ctx.family() == MYSQL)
ctx.render().visit(DSL.val(ctx.convert(converter()).value()));
else if (ctx.family() == DERBY)
ctx.render()
.sql("cast(
.visit(DSL.val(ctx.convert(converter()).value()))
.sql(" as varchar(255))");
else
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Dialect not supported: " + ctx.family());
}
You'd obviously also have to implement the other methods that tell jOOQ how to bind your variable to a JDBC PreparedStatement, or how to fetch it from a ResultSet
Avoiding the MySQL enum
Another, simpler way forward might be to avoid the vendor-specific feature and just use VARCHAR in both databases. You can still map that VARCHAR to a Java enum type using a jOOQ Converter that will work the same way in both databases.
Simplify testing by avoiding Derby
A much simpler way forward is to test your application directly on MySQL, e.g. on an in-memory docker virtualisation. There are a lot of differences between database vendors and their features, and at some point, working around those differences just to get slightly faster tests doesn't seem reasonable.
The exception is, of course, if you have to support both Derby and MySQL in production, in case of which the data type binding is again the best solution.

Java JDBC: Why is it necessary to register out-parameter?

I've got to learn Java JDBC currently.
Today I had a look on how Stored Procedures are called from within JDBC.
What I don't get ..., when I have a Stored Procedure like for example this one:
CREATE PROCEDURE demo.get_count_for_department
(IN the_department VARCHAR(64), OUT the_count INT)
BEGIN
...
"the_count" is marked as an out parameter. Type is also specified. So this should all be known.
Nevertheless I have to specify the type again
statement.registerOutParameter(2, Types.INTEGER);
I have to put the type in there again? It seems redundant to me.
Why do I have to give two parameter in there at all?
statement = connection.prepareCall("{call get_count_for_department(?, ?)}");
I haven't seen this in any other programming language. You only have to take care for the in-parameter. For the out-parameter takes the function care itself.
Why is that different here?
Perhaps someone can drop me a few lines. So that I get a better idea about how those Stored Procedure-calls work.
The reason is that the sql statement is just a string as seen from java perspective.
The task of a JDBC driver is to send that string to the database and receive results.
You could read the stored procedure metadata to get information about the stored procedure you are about to call but that takes time and possibly multiple queries to the DB.
If you want that kind of integration you go a step up from JDBC and use some kind of utilities or framework to map DB object to java ones.
Depending on the database it might technically not be necessary. Doing this allows a JDBC driver to execute the stored procedure without first having to query the database for metadata about the statement, and it can also be used to disambiguate between multiple stored procedures with the same name (but different parameters).

Corresponding java datatype for Numeric(9,2) in sybase

I want to insert a Numeric(9,2)value through SP in Sybase which is being invoked through Java.
What data type should I use in java side.
When you have to write an application to use data stored on database I suggest you to search for the default data type mapping of the jdbc driver you have to use (it depends on target database).
In your situation you could check this data type mapping http://jtds.sourceforge.net/typemap.html. For numeric the default is BigDecimal. In my experience BigDecimal saves some headaches.

How to specify SQL column type for a specific database in hibernate mapping file

Is it possible to set multiple SQL column types for an hibernate property depending on the dialect used ? If yes how ?
For example, if i have a column of type char[], I would like to create a CLOB type for Oracle and a Text type in SQL Server.
The short answer is "no, it's not possible".
The long answer is "kind of, but you probably don't want to do that":
Hibernate would do that automatically to a certain extent - that is, when you define (implicitly or explicitly) a property of certain Hibernate type, it will translate that type to appropriate RDBMS-specific SQL type. Dialect and its descendants are responsible for that translation.
You could influence how that translation occurs - again, to a certain extent - by extending the dialect(s) you're working with (like Oracle or SQL Server) and registering your own column types. You're likely better off relying on default Hibernate type mappings, though.

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