.NET Serialization to SQLite Database

.NET Serialization to SQLite Database
by BrettG

Most non-enterprise applications need the ability to store data locally. Some need only simple storage for things like settings, whereas others need a full SQL database capability for various needs. I have written many such applications over the years. Until I found SQLite, I had to use MS Access. On older computers, that meant installing MDAC (all of the ODBC/OLEDB drivers) - quite a large installer footprint. A happy day it was that I found out about SQLite. In case you don't know about SQLite, its a complete SQL database in a single file. And it is very fast and efficient. But - its all written in C and therefore is not suitable to use from .NET. We therefore need a COM wrapper for it so as to be able to use it from .NET languages. Fortunately there is SQLitePlus from EzTools Software (www.eztools-software.com/sqliteplus.htm), an excellent choice for a SQLite wrapper, as it has exceptional features for handling BLOB data and COM data types, and even encryption and compression.

This article explains 3 ways to serialize .NET objects to a SQLite database using SQLitePlus, which are: 1) Whole object serialization, 2) Custom object serialization, and 3) as normal database column/field level saving. The first two ways use a single binary database field (BLOB) to persist objects. The other way is using customary database columns (like FirstName, Age, etc.).

First, a bit of background on SQLitePlus. It consists of 2 DLLs - the COM DLL, which provides the COM classes you use in your programs. They are the SqliteDb, Dataset, Columns and Column classes. Using these COM class objects we can create new database files, execute SQL commands and get back result datasets. The other DLL is a "version DLL" which is a plain DLL (not COM) that encapsulates the SQLite database engine C code. The reason it is split into 2 DLLs is so that newer versions of the version DLL can be swapped-in without changing the COM DLL. For example, a new version of the SQLite engine is released, so you only need to update the version DLL rather than both. Also, you can make custom builds of the version DLL, for example to add your own User Defined Functions. Its quite a nifty system.

These DLLs are included in the source code Zip file, but you must register the COM DLL to run the projects (using RegSvr32.exe). A .cmd file is included that does this for you (click on runme.cmd).

Note: You can also download the SQLitePlus Database Manager from the EzTools website. It is very useful for visualizing your data as you experiment with the SQLitePlus COM DLL in your code. Here is the download link:

www.eztools-software.com/downloads/sqliteplus.exe

After registering the SQLitePlus COM DLL, we are ready to start by adding a reference to the SQLitePlus COM DLL in your project. In the "Add Reference" dialog, scroll down and find "EzTools SqlitePus 3.5 COM DLL", as shown here:

Now in MainFrm.cs, add this "using" statement near the top of the file:

using SQLITEPLUS35;

OK, now we're ready to add a SqliteDb member variable which we can use for our serialization functions. Add this line near the top of the class definition:

SqliteDb mDB = new SqliteDb();

Now scroll down to the form's Load event handler. Here we find the SqliteDb initialization and database opening:

String sErr;
ErrorCodeEnum eErr;

mDB.Init( "sqlt3317.dll", "demo", null );
mDB.Open( Application.StartupPath + @"\sqlite.db", -1, false );

Notice I have specified the version DLL name in the Init method call. If the version DLL is not in the same folder as the COM DLL, you must also specify its path. The second parameter is for the license key. Just use "demo" (you can use SQLitePlus with no license, but with a 10 row limit for dataset results).

The next line is the Open method call. This actually creates or opens the database file. The first time you run the project, the database file (sqlite.db) will be created. Thereafter it will be opened.

Next we create our database tables. I have created a helper function, TableExists, which checks the sqlite_master table for the table name. If its not there, we create the table.

Table Products1 is for BLOB serialization so it has only the ID and BLOB Data column. Here is the table definition for Products1:

CREATE TABLE Products1(ID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL, Data BLOB)

Products2 is for field serialization, so it has individual fields for each data member. Here is the table definition:

CREATE TABLE Products2(ID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL, Name TEXT NOT NULL, QtyPerUnit TEXT NOT NULL, Price FLOAT NOT NULL, LastOrderDate DATE NOT NULL)

This sort of table definition will look familiar to most programmers. Its a one-to-one mapping of the Product object fields to the table columns (see below).

OK, now that we have our database connection and the tables created, let's create our example class named Product. We must give it the Serializable Attribute so that we can use .NET Serialization. We then declare the data members. We'll add the serialization methods as we go. Here is the class definition with only the data members declared:

[System.Serializable]
public class Product
{
public int mnID;
public string msName,
msQtyPerUnit;
public float mPrice;
public DateTime mLastOrderDate;
}

I have deliberately declared members that use a few different data types so as to demonstrate how to use them with SQLitePlus. The members are public so as to simplify access, and consequently, code readability.

I create two Product objects in the code for our serialization purposes in CreateProducts.

void CreateProducts()
{
mProduct1 = new Product();
mProduct1.mnID = PROD_ID_1;
mProduct1.mPrice = 97F;
mProduct1.msName = "Mishi Kobe Niku";
mProduct1.msQtyPerUnit = "18 - 500 g pkgs.";
mProduct1.mLastOrderDate = DateTime.Today.AddDays( 90 );

mProduct2 = new Product();
mProduct2.mnID = PROD_ID_2;
mProduct2.mPrice = 18F;
mProduct2.msName = "Queso Cabrales";
mProduct2.msQtyPerUnit = "1 kg pkg.";
mProduct1.mLastOrderDate = DateTime.Today.AddDays( 120 );
}

Now we are ready to serialize our data.

Serialize Whole Objects Using .NET Serialization

Our first serialization method is to use .NET serialization to persist whole objects to the database. Our table has only the ID and Data columns, the latter of which is defined as BLOB. We will now see how to save entire objects to this single column. Here is the code.

private void lnkSerializeWholeObject_LinkClicked( object sender, LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e )
{
// ensure we have an object
CreateProducts();

byte[] arData;

using(MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
{
BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
formatter.Serialize( stream, mProduct1 );
arData = stream.ToArray();
stream.Close();
}

String sErr, sSql;
ErrorCodeEnum eErr;
SQLITEPLUS35.Dataset ds;
object oKey = null;

SQLITEPLUS35.VariantCollection paramsCol = new SQLITEPLUS35.VariantCollection();
paramsCol.Add( arData, oKey );

ds = mDB.Exec( "SELECT ID FROM Products1 WHERE ID=" + PROD_ID_1, null, out eErr, out sErr );

if(ds.eof)
sSql = String.Format( "INSERT INTO Products1 (ID, Data) VALUES({0}, ?)", PROD_ID_1);
else
sSql = String.Format( "UPDATE Products1 SET Data=? WHERE ID={0}", PROD_ID_1);

mDB.Exec( sSql, paramsCol, out eErr, out sErr );
}

The first thing we need are a MemoryStream and BinaryFormatter object. The latter is used to serialize our Product object into the former using built-in .NET serialization. Then we get the stream's contents as a byte array with the call arData = stream.ToArray().

So far so good. We are now ready to save the byte array as a BLOB into the SQLite Products1 table. To do this we need a SQLitePlus VariantCollection object, which is used to hold BLOB parameters. We call the Add method, giving a null key since we don't care about ordering the collection in any way. Now its not obvious, but what happens here is the byte array is converted to a COM SAFEARRAY by the COM InterOp runtime, which is exactly what we need to happen to insert or update a BLOB field.

Then we must determine if this is a new product or if it already exists in the database, so that we can build the appropriate SQL statement. To do this, we attempt to retrieve just the ID column for the Product ID of interest. We then check the Dataset to see if its empty (eof). If it is, we build an INSERT statement. If not, we build an UPDATE statement.

Notice here the ? in the SQL statements. This is the parameter substitution mechanism for SQLite. The BLOB data will be substituted deep within the SQLite engine as the Data column value. SQLitePlus provides us the high-level objects that give us the ability to store and retrieve binary data.

And of course, the last thing to do is execute the SQL statement with the SqliteDb.Exec method. We will note that the size of the byte array is 255 bytes.

OK. We have successfully created a SQLite database and table, and serialized a .NET class object into a BLOB field. Now lets look at how to recreate the same class object using .NET deserialization.

Deserialize Whole Objects using .NET Deserialization

Right, so now we want to re-create our class objects from the saved BLOB data. Its going to be very easy, as we see in the code below.

private void lnkDeserializeWholeObject_LinkClicked( object sender, LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e )
{
String sErr;
ErrorCodeEnum eErr;
SQLITEPLUS35.Dataset ds;

ds = mDB.Exec( "SELECT ID, Data FROM Products1 WHERE ID=" + PROD_ID_1, null, out eErr, out sErr );

if(ds.eof)
{
MessageBox.Show( "Product not found!" );
return;
}

object val = ds.Columns["Data"].Value;

// check for NULL database value
if(Convert.IsDBNull( val ))
return;

byte[] arData = (byte[]) val;

using(MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
{
stream.Write( arData, 0, arData.Length );
stream.Seek( 0, SeekOrigin.Begin );

BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
mProduct1 = (Product) formatter.Deserialize( stream );
// we could just assign PROD_ID_1, but I'm showing how to get column data
// from a Dataset
mProduct1.mnID = (int) ds.Columns[0].Value;
}
}

First we must select our Product row from the database into a Dataset object. We check for EOF, and if no row was found we display a message and return. If we have a row, we access the Data column using the Dataset's Columns collection. We assign the value to an object first, so we can use the Convert.IsDBNull method to check for a NULL database value. If its not null, we then cast the value to a byte array and write it to a MemoryStream. Then we create a BinaryFormatter object and call its Deserialize method, casting the return value to a Product type, thus giving us a newly deserialized Product object. Lastly, we assign the ID from the Dataset to show how to access other column data types. Notice I indexed by ordinal position rather than by column name (Columns[0] vs. Columns["ID"]). You can use either method.

Now we have seen how to save whole objects directly into a SQLite database file with very little programming effort. Now lets see how to use a custom BLOB serialization method, apart from any .NET mechanism.

Custom BLOB Serialization

This is our second method of serializing object data to SQLite database. We will show how to serialize the same object data, but in a more space efficient way and without having to derive from and implement the ISerializable interface. Here is the code:

private void lnkCustomSerialization_LinkClicked( object sender, LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e )
{
// ensure we have an object
CreateProducts();

byte[] arData;

using( MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream() )
{
using( BinaryWriter bWriter = new BinaryWriter( stream ) )
{
mProduct2.Serialize( bWriter );
arData = stream.ToArray();
}
}

String sErr, sSql;
ErrorCodeEnum eErr;
SQLITEPLUS35.Dataset ds;
object oKey = null;

SQLITEPLUS35.VariantCollection paramsCol = new SQLITEPLUS35.VariantCollection();
paramsCol.Add( arData, oKey );

ds = mDB.Exec( "SELECT ID FROM Products1 WHERE ID=" + PROD_ID_2, null, out eErr, out sErr );

if(ds.eof)
sSql = String.Format( "INSERT INTO Products1 (ID, Data) VALUES({0},?)", PROD_ID_2 );
else
sSql = String.Format( "UPDATE Products1 SET Data=? WHERE ID={0}", PROD_ID_2 );

mDB.Exec( sSql, paramsCol, out eErr, out sErr );

arData = null;
}

The code is almost identical to the whole object serialization example. So what have we done different? Notice we have called Product.Serialize instead of BinaryFormatter.Serialize. Let's now define Product.Serialize:

public void Serialize( BinaryWriter bWriter )
{
short nVer = 1; // each object should have its own version

bWriter.Write( nVer );
bWriter.Write( msName );
bWriter.Write( msQtyPerUnit );
bWriter.Write( (double) mPrice );
bWriter.Write( mLastOrderDate.ToOADate() );
}

Here we see that we explicitly write each member value that we want to serialize. We can also write a version number first, which makes it possible to add new fields later. We simply check the version number when deserializing to see if we should deserialize the new fields or not. Notice we use DateTime.ToAODate to convert mLastOrderDate to OLE date type.

Custom Deserialization

Again, the code is very similar to the .NET deserialization method. The only difference is the Product.Deserialize method call. Let's look at the code:

private void lnkCustomDeserialization_LinkClicked( object sender, LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e )
{
if(mProduct2 == null)
mProduct2 = new Product();
else
mProduct2.Reset();

String sErr;
ErrorCodeEnum eErr;
Dataset ds = mDB.Exec( "SELECT ID, Data FROM Products1 WHERE ID=" + PROD_ID_2, null, out eErr, out sErr );
if(ds.eof)
{
MessageBox.Show( "Product not found!" );
return;
}
object val = ds.Columns[1].Value;

if(Convert.IsDBNull( val ))
return;

byte[] arData = (byte[]) val;

using(MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
{
stream.Write( arData, 0, arData.Length );
stream.Seek( 0, SeekOrigin.Begin );

using(BinaryReader bReader = new BinaryReader( stream ))
{
mProduct2.Deserialize( bReader );
mProduct2.mnID = (int) ds.Columns[0].Value;
}
}
}

Here is the Product.Deserialize method definition:

public void Deserialize( BinaryReader bReader )
{
short nVer;

nVer = bReader.ReadInt16();
msName = bReader.ReadString();
msQtyPerUnit = bReader.ReadString();
mPrice = (float) bReader.ReadDouble();
double date = bReader.ReadDouble();
mLastOrderDate = DateTime.FromOADate( date );
}

Notice how straight-forward the code is. And see how we must convert our LastOrderDate field using DateTime.FromOADate. The version number can be used later when you must add new fields and know if you should deserialize them or not.

Custom deserialization is not quite as simple as .NET object serialization, but it is much more flexible. You have to define your own Serialize and Deserialize methods, but you have fine control over what goes in and comes out. And there are some instances where it is quite preferable. For example, when using Reflection to deserialize objects from a dynamically loaded assembly, you will get a security exception, thus preventing you from deserializing your objects (you would need to write a special handler to overcome this issue). Additionally, the size of the binary data is only 35 bytes vs. the 255 bytes for the .NET serialization method (no doubt the extra 220 bytes are .NET header info).

Now its on to our final serialization method.

Save to Table Columns

We have seen how to save entire objects into BLOB fields. Now we will show how to use traditional table columns using SQLitePlus. Here is the code for saving an object:

// ensure we have an object
CreateProducts();

String sErr, sSql;
ErrorCodeEnum eErr;
SQLITEPLUS35.Dataset ds;

sSql = String.Format( "SELECT ID FROM Products2 WHERE ID={0}", PROD_ID_1 );

ds = mDB.Exec( sSql, null, out eErr, out sErr );

if(ds.eof)
sSql = String.Format( "INSERT INTO Products2 (ID, Name, QtyPerUnit, Price, LastOrderDate) VALUES({0}, '{1}', '{2}', {3}, {4})", PROD_ID_1, mProduct1.msName, mProduct1.msQtyPerUnit, mProduct1.mPrice, mProduct1.mLastOrderDate.ToOADate() );
else
sSql = String.Format( "UPDATE Products2 SET Name='{0}', QtyPerUnit='{1}', Price={2}, LastOrderDate={3} WHERE ID={4}", mProduct1.msName, mProduct1.msQtyPerUnit, mProduct1.mPrice, mProduct1.mLastOrderDate.ToOADate(), PROD_ID_1 );

mDB.Exec( sSql, null, out eErr, out sErr );

You can see that we are simply formatting a SQL string by using the object data members directly. Notice that for the date field mLastOrderDate, we use the DateTime.ToOADate method to convert it to OLE date format, which is the double data type.

Load Columns From Table

OK, so lets see how to load our object fields from the database. Here is the last code:

private void lnkLoadFields_LinkClicked( object sender, LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs e )
{
if(mProduct1 == null)
mProduct1 = new Product();
else
mProduct1.Reset();

String sErr, sSql;
ErrorCodeEnum eErr;

sSql = "SELECT * FROM Products2 WHERE ID=" + PROD_ID_1;

Dataset ds = mDB.Exec( sSql, null, out eErr, out sErr );
if(ds.eof)
{
MessageBox.Show( "Product not found!" );
return;
}
mProduct1.mnID = (int) ds.Columns["ID"].Value;
mProduct1.msName = (string) ds.Columns["Name"].Value;
mProduct1.msQtyPerUnit = (string) ds.Columns["QtyPerUnit"].Value;
mProduct1.mPrice = (float) ds.Columns["Price"].Value;
mProduct1.mLastOrderDate = (DateTime) ds.Columns["LastOrderDate"].Value;
}

Notice how its just a simple matter of casting the column values to their field data types.

Conclusion

In this article, I have demonstrated how easy and straight-forward it is to use SQLitePlus for .NET object serialization to SQLite database files. We have learned 3 different ways to go about it, taking advantage of COM InterOp to easily and elegantly use the SQLitePlus COM DLL in a C# program and to convert between data types seamlessly. I can't tell you how much I love using this system to get my coding work done super-fast with such cool database tools as SQLite and SQLitePlus. In my next article, "Encrypted .NET Serialization to SQLite Database", I will show how to use the same methods described here but with encryption added.

About the Author

BrettG is a professional Windows programmer and owner of EzTools Software, maker of Windows programming tools (www.eztools-software.com)