to top
Android APIs
public static final class

ContactsContract.Data

extends Object
implements ContactsContract.DataColumnsWithJoins
java.lang.Object
   ↳ android.provider.ContactsContract.Data

Class Overview

Constants for the data table, which contains data points tied to a raw contact. Each row of the data table is typically used to store a single piece of contact information (such as a phone number) and its associated metadata (such as whether it is a work or home number).

Data kinds

Data is a generic table that can hold any kind of contact data. The kind of data stored in a given row is specified by the row's MIMETYPE value, which determines the meaning of the generic columns DATA1 through DATA15. For example, if the data kind is Phone.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE, then the column DATA1 stores the phone number, but if the data kind is Email.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE, then DATA1 stores the email address. Sync adapters and applications can introduce their own data kinds.

ContactsContract defines a small number of pre-defined data kinds, e.g. ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone, ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email etc. As a convenience, these classes define data kind specific aliases for DATA1 etc. For example, Phone.NUMBER is the same as Data.DATA1.

DATA1 is an indexed column and should be used for the data element that is expected to be most frequently used in query selections. For example, in the case of a row representing email addresses DATA1 should probably be used for the email address itself, while DATA2 etc can be used for auxiliary information like type of email address.

By convention, DATA15 is used for storing BLOBs (binary data).

The sync adapter for a given account type must correctly handle every data type used in the corresponding raw contacts. Otherwise it could result in lost or corrupted data.

Similarly, you should refrain from introducing new kinds of data for an other party's account types. For example, if you add a data row for "favorite song" to a raw contact owned by a Google account, it will not get synced to the server, because the Google sync adapter does not know how to handle this data kind. Thus new data kinds are typically introduced along with new account types, i.e. new sync adapters.

Batch operations

Data rows can be inserted/updated/deleted using the traditional insert(Uri, ContentValues), update(Uri, ContentValues, String, String[]) and delete(Uri, String, String[]) methods, however the newer mechanism based on a batch of ContentProviderOperation will prove to be a better choice in almost all cases. All operations in a batch are executed in a single transaction, which ensures that the phone-side and server-side state of a raw contact are always consistent. Also, the batch-based approach is far more efficient: not only are the database operations faster when executed in a single transaction, but also sending a batch of commands to the content provider saves a lot of time on context switching between your process and the process in which the content provider runs.

The flip side of using batched operations is that a large batch may lock up the database for a long time preventing other applications from accessing data and potentially causing ANRs ("Application Not Responding" dialogs.)

To avoid such lockups of the database, make sure to insert "yield points" in the batch. A yield point indicates to the content provider that before executing the next operation it can commit the changes that have already been made, yield to other requests, open another transaction and continue processing operations. A yield point will not automatically commit the transaction, but only if there is another request waiting on the database. Normally a sync adapter should insert a yield point at the beginning of each raw contact operation sequence in the batch. See withYieldAllowed(boolean).

Operations

Insert

An individual data row can be inserted using the traditional insert(Uri, ContentValues) method. Multiple rows should always be inserted as a batch.

An example of a traditional insert:

 ContentValues values = new ContentValues();
 values.put(Data.RAW_CONTACT_ID, rawContactId);
 values.put(Data.MIMETYPE, Phone.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE);
 values.put(Phone.NUMBER, "1-800-GOOG-411");
 values.put(Phone.TYPE, Phone.TYPE_CUSTOM);
 values.put(Phone.LABEL, "free directory assistance");
 Uri dataUri = getContentResolver().insert(Data.CONTENT_URI, values);
 

The same done using ContentProviderOperations:

 ArrayList<ContentProviderOperation> ops =
          new ArrayList<ContentProviderOperation>();

 ops.add(ContentProviderOperation.newInsert(Data.CONTENT_URI)
          .withValue(Data.RAW_CONTACT_ID, rawContactId)
          .withValue(Data.MIMETYPE, Phone.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE)
          .withValue(Phone.NUMBER, "1-800-GOOG-411")
          .withValue(Phone.TYPE, Phone.TYPE_CUSTOM)
          .withValue(Phone.LABEL, "free directory assistance")
          .build());
 getContentResolver().applyBatch(ContactsContract.AUTHORITY, ops);
 

Update

Just as with insert, update can be done incrementally or as a batch, the batch mode being the preferred method:

 ArrayList<ContentProviderOperation> ops =
          new ArrayList<ContentProviderOperation>();

 ops.add(ContentProviderOperation.newUpdate(Data.CONTENT_URI)
          .withSelection(Data._ID + "=?", new String[]{String.valueOf(dataId)})
          .withValue(Email.DATA, "somebody@android.com")
          .build());
 getContentResolver().applyBatch(ContactsContract.AUTHORITY, ops);
 

Delete

Just as with insert and update, deletion can be done either using the delete(Uri, String, String[]) method or using a ContentProviderOperation:

 ArrayList<ContentProviderOperation> ops =
          new ArrayList<ContentProviderOperation>();

 ops.add(ContentProviderOperation.newDelete(Data.CONTENT_URI)
          .withSelection(Data._ID + "=?", new String[]{String.valueOf(dataId)})
          .build());
 getContentResolver().applyBatch(ContactsContract.AUTHORITY, ops);
 

Query

Finding all Data of a given type for a given contact
 Cursor c = getContentResolver().query(Data.CONTENT_URI,
          new String[] {Data._ID, Phone.NUMBER, Phone.TYPE, Phone.LABEL},
          Data.CONTACT_ID + "=?" + " AND "
                  + Data.MIMETYPE + "='" + Phone.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE + "'",
          new String[] {String.valueOf(contactId)}, null);
 

Finding all Data of a given type for a given raw contact
 Cursor c = getContentResolver().query(Data.CONTENT_URI,
          new String[] {Data._ID, Phone.NUMBER, Phone.TYPE, Phone.LABEL},
          Data.RAW_CONTACT_ID + "=?" + " AND "
                  + Data.MIMETYPE + "='" + Phone.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE + "'",
          new String[] {String.valueOf(rawContactId)}, null);
 
Finding all Data for a given raw contact
Most sync adapters will want to read all data rows for a raw contact along with the raw contact itself. For that you should use the ContactsContract.RawContactsEntity. See also ContactsContract.RawContacts.

Columns

Many columns are available via a CONTENT_URI query. For best performance you should explicitly specify a projection to only those columns that you need.

Data
long _ID read-only Row ID. Sync adapter should try to preserve row IDs during updates. In other words, it would be a bad idea to delete and reinsert a data row. A sync adapter should always do an update instead.
String MIMETYPE read/write-once

The MIME type of the item represented by this row. Examples of common MIME types are:

long RAW_CONTACT_ID read/write-once The id of the row in the ContactsContract.RawContacts table that this data belongs to.
int IS_PRIMARY read/write Whether this is the primary entry of its kind for the raw contact it belongs to. "1" if true, "0" if false.
int IS_SUPER_PRIMARY read/write Whether this is the primary entry of its kind for the aggregate contact it belongs to. Any data record that is "super primary" must also be "primary". For example, the super-primary entry may be interpreted as the default contact value of its kind (for example, the default phone number to use for the contact).
int DATA_VERSION read-only The version of this data record. Whenever the data row changes the version goes up. This value is monotonically increasing.
Any type DATA1
DATA2
DATA3
DATA4
DATA5
DATA6
DATA7
DATA8
DATA9
DATA10
DATA11
DATA12
DATA13
DATA14
DATA15
read/write

Generic data columns. The meaning of each column is determined by the MIMETYPE. By convention, DATA15 is used for storing BLOBs (binary data).

Data columns whose meaning is not explicitly defined for a given MIMETYPE should not be used. There is no guarantee that any sync adapter will preserve them. Sync adapters themselves should not use such columns either, but should instead use SYNC1-SYNC4.

Any type SYNC1
SYNC2
SYNC3
SYNC4
read/write Generic columns for use by sync adapters. For example, a Photo row may store the image URL in SYNC1, a status (not loaded, loading, loaded, error) in SYNC2, server-side version number in SYNC3 and error code in SYNC4.

Some columns from the most recent associated status update are also available through an implicit join.

Join with ContactsContract.StatusUpdates
int PRESENCE read-only IM presence status linked to this data row. Compare with CONTACT_PRESENCE, which contains the contact's presence across all IM rows. See ContactsContract.StatusUpdates for individual status definitions. The provider may choose not to store this value in persistent storage. The expectation is that presence status will be updated on a regular basic.
String STATUS read-only Latest status update linked with this data row.
long STATUS_TIMESTAMP read-only The absolute time in milliseconds when the latest status was inserted/updated for this data row.
String STATUS_RES_PACKAGE read-only The package containing resources for this status: label and icon.
long STATUS_LABEL read-only The resource ID of the label describing the source of status update linked to this data row. This resource is scoped by the STATUS_RES_PACKAGE.
long STATUS_ICON read-only The resource ID of the icon for the source of the status update linked to this data row. This resource is scoped by the STATUS_RES_PACKAGE.

Some columns from the associated raw contact are also available through an implicit join. The other columns are excluded as uninteresting in this context.

Join with ContactsContract.RawContacts
long CONTACT_ID read-only The id of the row in the Contacts table that this data belongs to.
int AGGREGATION_MODE read-only See ContactsContract.RawContacts.
int DELETED read-only See ContactsContract.RawContacts.

The ID column for the associated aggregated contact table ContactsContract.Contacts is available via the implicit join to the ContactsContract.RawContacts table, see above. The remaining columns from this table are also available, through an implicit join. This facilitates lookup by the value of a single data element, such as the email address.

Join with ContactsContract.Contacts
String LOOKUP_KEY read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts
String DISPLAY_NAME read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts
long PHOTO_ID read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.
int IN_VISIBLE_GROUP read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.
int HAS_PHONE_NUMBER read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.
int TIMES_CONTACTED read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.
long LAST_TIME_CONTACTED read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.
int STARRED read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.
String CUSTOM_RINGTONE read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.
int SEND_TO_VOICEMAIL read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.
int CONTACT_PRESENCE read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.
String CONTACT_STATUS read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.
long CONTACT_STATUS_TIMESTAMP read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.
String CONTACT_STATUS_RES_PACKAGE read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.
long CONTACT_STATUS_LABEL read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.
long CONTACT_STATUS_ICON read-only See ContactsContract.Contacts.

Summary

Constants
String CONTENT_TYPE The MIME type of the results from CONTENT_URI.
[Expand]
Inherited Constants
From interface android.provider.BaseColumns
From interface android.provider.ContactsContract.ContactNameColumns
From interface android.provider.ContactsContract.ContactOptionsColumns
From interface android.provider.ContactsContract.ContactStatusColumns
From interface android.provider.ContactsContract.ContactsColumns
From interface android.provider.ContactsContract.DataColumns
From interface android.provider.ContactsContract.RawContactsColumns
From interface android.provider.ContactsContract.StatusColumns
Fields
public static final Uri CONTENT_URI The content:// style URI for this table, which requests a directory of data rows matching the selection criteria.
Public Methods
static Uri getContactLookupUri(ContentResolver resolver, Uri dataUri)

Build a CONTENT_LOOKUP_URI style Uri for the parent ContactsContract.Contacts entry of the given ContactsContract.Data entry.

[Expand]
Inherited Methods
From class java.lang.Object

Constants

public static final String CONTENT_TYPE

Added in API level 5

The MIME type of the results from CONTENT_URI.

Constant Value: "vnd.android.cursor.dir/data"

Fields

public static final Uri CONTENT_URI

Added in API level 5

The content:// style URI for this table, which requests a directory of data rows matching the selection criteria.

Public Methods

public static Uri getContactLookupUri (ContentResolver resolver, Uri dataUri)

Added in API level 5

Build a CONTENT_LOOKUP_URI style Uri for the parent ContactsContract.Contacts entry of the given ContactsContract.Data entry.

Returns the Uri for the contact in the first entry returned by query(Uri, String[], String, String[], String) for the provided dataUri. If the query returns null or empty results, silently returns null.