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Flutter › SQLite & Local Databases (sqflite)

How should you properly organize your sqflite database access code using a dedicated database helper class, keeping your genuine SQL related logic properly and cleanly separated from the rest of your app's own business logic?

Intermediate

Answer

A dedicated database helper class typically properly encapsulates the entire database's own connection lifecycle, including genuinely opening it once and correctly reusing that exact same single connection throughout the entire app's own lifetime, along with providing genuinely clear, well named methods for each of your specific application's own required data operations, such as insertOrder or getOrdersByCustomer, keeping every single raw SQL query properly contained within this one single dedicated class rather than scattered messily throughout dozens of separate individual widgets, meaningfully improving your overall codebase's genuine maintainability.
class DatabaseHelper {
  static Database? _database;

  Future<Database> get database async {
    _database ??= await openDatabase('app.db', version: 1, onCreate: _createTables);
    return _database!;
  }
}
Real-world example A large app centralizes every single one of their raw SQL queries within one dedicated DatabaseHelper class, letting the rest of their app simply call clearly named methods like getRecentOrders rather than each individual separate widget needing to directly write and manage its own raw SQL queries themselves.

Common follow-ups: Should this exact same dedicated database helper class genuinely also implement the repository pattern discussed earlier?;How do you actually properly and correctly handle concurrent access to the exact same database connection from several genuinely separate different parts of your app at once?