Android - Select max in contentProvider

Question

I try to run this query on my custom contentprovider.

cursor = activity.getContentResolver().query(
                GoalDescriptor.CONTENT_URI,
                     


        

Answer 1

Unfortunately nEx's answer (using "AS" to provide an alias for the column) only works with providers who don't set the strictProjectionMap flag in their SQLiteQueryBuilder. E.g. the contacts provider sets this flag, so if you try the AS approach you'll still get the "Invalid column" error.

And if someone can tell me how specifying an aggregate function like MAX in the selection is supposed to work I'd be very grateful. If I try it I just get a "misuse of aggregate function" exception, which is exactly what I'd expect from trying to put an aggregate function in a WHERE clause. I know you can put a subquery in the WHERE clause, but that assumes that you know the actual table structure, and that it will never change on any given device or OS level, which I wouldn't want to bet on (after all, that's why are using the provider interface in the first place, to abstract from the underlying data store).

So...I don't know of any way to do this for providers who set the strictProjectionMap flag other than to sort DESC by the desired field, and preferably LIMIT to 1 row if the provider supports it (or if you're willing to take a chance on breaking something by including the LIMIT in the sort string). I would be very happy if someone knows other approaches for these cases!