Although programmatic updates do not apply to all types of applications, developers should attempt to use programmatic updates and deletes. Using the updateXXX methods of the ResultSet object allows the developer to update data without building a complex SQL statement. Instead, the developer simply supplies the column in the result set that is to be updated and the data that is to be changed. Then, before moving the cursor from the row in the result set, the updateRow() method must be called to update the database as well.
In the following code fragment, the value of the Age column of the ResultSet object rs is returned using the getInt() method, and the updateInt() method is used to update the column with an int value of 25. The updateRow() method is called to update the row in the database with the modified value.
int n = rs.getInt("Age");
// n contains value of Age column in the resultset rs
...
rs.updateInt("Age", 25);
rs.updateRow();
In addition to making the application more easily maintainable, programmatic updates usually result in improved performance. Because the database server is already positioned on the row for the Select statement in process, performance-expensive operations to locate the row that needs to be changed are unnecessary. If the row must be located, the server usually has an internal pointer to the row available (for example, ROWID).
