A convenient approach on keeping SQL in Java
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Where to keep SQL statements? This question arises almost for any more-less sophisticated Java application that accesses DBMS. Two most common approaches are: (1) as string constants in Java and (2) as text in external files. Both these approaches have significant drawbacks. Java strings get complicated when a string is too long to fit in one line, leading to a difficult to read and hard to maintain SQL code. SQL in external files are not easy to lookup and require some mapping technique to associate statement in the external file with a place in Java where it is needed. Also, as development goes, the text file adheres with more and more orphan SQL statements and there is no easy way to clean them up. This article suggests an approach that combines two mentioned above and inherits their strong sides.
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