Android fetch all contact list (name, email, phone) takes more then a minute for about 700 contacts

Question

Is there any way to shorten this time? I'm running with the cursor and takes the name, phone numbers and emails

if I remove the phone numbers query from the query loop it ends in 3 seconds

any idea how can I improve that query?

Maybe I'm doing something wrong in my query?

(Obviously I'm doing it async but still... it's a very long time that a user can't wait)

Hope someone can share his thoughts about this

this is my code

ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver();
            Cursor cur = cr.query(ContactsContract.Contacts.CONTENT_URI,
                    null, null, null, null);
            if (cur.getCount() > 0) {
                while (cur.moveToNext()) {
                    AddressBookEntity adr = new AddressBookEntity();
                    String id = cur.getString(cur
                            .getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.Contacts._ID));
                    String name = cur
                            .getString(cur
                                    .getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME));
                    adr.fullName = name;

                    Cursor emailCur = cr
                            .query(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email.CONTENT_URI,
                                    null,
                                    ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email.CONTACT_ID
                                            + " = ?", new String[] { id },
                                    null);
                    while (emailCur.moveToNext()) {
                        // This would allow you get several email addresses
                        // if the email addresses were stored in an array
                        String email = emailCur
                                .getString(emailCur
                                        .getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email.DATA));
                        if (!Utils.IsNullOrEmptyString(email)) {
                            adr.email = email;
                        }

                    }
                    emailCur.close();

                    if (Integer
                            .parseInt(cur.getString(cur
                                    .getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.Contacts.HAS_PHONE_NUMBER))) > 0) {
                        Cursor pCur = cr
                                .query(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.CONTENT_URI,
                                        null,
                                        ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.CONTACT_ID
                                                + " = ?",
                                        new String[] { id }, null);
                        int phoneIndex = 0;
                        while (pCur.moveToNext()) {
                            String number = pCur.getString(pCur
                                    .getColumnIndex(Phone.NUMBER));

                            String country = Utils.GetCountryFromNumber(
                                    number, app);
                            number = Utils.GetFullPhoneNumber(number, app);
                            if (phoneIndex == 0) {
                                if (!Utils.IsNullOrEmptyString(number)) {
                                    adr.contactAdressBookId = id;
                                    adr.phoneNumber = number;
                                    adr.userInsertedId = app.userCred.userId;
                                    adr.country = country;
                                    myContacts.add(adr);
                                }
                            } else {
                                if (!Utils.IsNullOrEmptyString(number)) {
                                    AddressBookEntity adrMore = new AddressBookEntity();
                                    adrMore.fullName = adrMore.fullName;
                                    adrMore.country = adrMore.country;
                                    adrMore.email = adrMore.email;
                                    adrMore.phoneNumber = number;
                                    adrMore.contactAdressBookId = id;
                                    adrMore.country = country;
                                    myContacts.add(adrMore);
                                }
                            }
                        }
                        pCur.close();
                    }
                }
                cur.close();

3 seconds is too much, it should be done in half a second in a worst case — pskink, Nov 07 '14 at 19:16
the attached code takes almost one minute! 3 seconds is without the mail and phones — itay83, Nov 07 '14 at 20:41
OMG i forgot the main code in my answer, try it now and tell your results, i think that you should do it in 1/3 sec... — pskink, Nov 09 '14 at 08:09

pskink · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-09T20:49:59.743

with the following code for 59 contacts i got the following results on the emulator:

      D  ╔══════ query execution stats ═══════
      D  ║    got 59 contacts
      D  ║    query took 0.012 s (12 ms)
      D  ╚════════════════════════════════════

ok, that was the best time, but the average is 25-35 ms (for 59 contacts), add the following code in some onClick callback and run in several times in order to get the average time, in your case you should get 30 * 700 / 59 = ~300-400 ms, not 3 seconds, let alone one minute ;)

it uses Uri set to Contactables.CONTENT_URI added in API level 18 but you can use ContactsContract.Data.CONTENT_URI when building for pre 18 API devices

List<AddressBookContact> list = new LinkedList<AddressBookContact>();
LongSparseArray<AddressBookContact> array = new LongSparseArray<AddressBookContact>();
long start = System.currentTimeMillis();

String[] projection = {
        ContactsContract.Data.MIMETYPE,
        ContactsContract.Data.CONTACT_ID,
        ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME,
        ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Contactables.DATA,
        ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Contactables.TYPE,
};
String selection = ContactsContract.Data.MIMETYPE + " in (?, ?)";
String[] selectionArgs = {
        ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE,
        ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE,
};
String sortOrder = ContactsContract.Contacts.SORT_KEY_ALTERNATIVE;

Uri uri = ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Contactables.CONTENT_URI;
// we could also use Uri uri = ContactsContract.Data.CONTENT_URI;

// ok, let's work...
Cursor cursor = getContentResolver().query(uri, projection, selection, selectionArgs, sortOrder);

final int mimeTypeIdx = cursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.Data.MIMETYPE);
final int idIdx = cursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.Data.CONTACT_ID);
final int nameIdx = cursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME);
final int dataIdx = cursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Contactables.DATA);
final int typeIdx = cursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Contactables.TYPE);

while (cursor.moveToNext()) {
    long id = cursor.getLong(idIdx);
    AddressBookContact addressBookContact = array.get(id);
    if (addressBookContact == null) {
        addressBookContact = new AddressBookContact(id, cursor.getString(nameIdx), getResources());
        array.put(id, addressBookContact);
        list.add(addressBookContact);
    }
    int type = cursor.getInt(typeIdx);
    String data = cursor.getString(dataIdx);
    String mimeType = cursor.getString(mimeTypeIdx);
    if (mimeType.equals(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE)) {
        // mimeType == ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE
        addressBookContact.addEmail(type, data);
    } else {
        // mimeType == ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE
        addressBookContact.addPhone(type, data);
    }
}
long ms = System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
cursor.close();

// done!!! show the results...
int i = 1;
for (AddressBookContact addressBookContact : list) {
    Log.d(TAG, "AddressBookContact #" + i++ + ": " + addressBookContact.toString(true));
}
final String cOn = "<b><font color='#ff9900'>";
final String cOff = "</font></b>";
Spanned l1 = Html.fromHtml("got " + cOn + array.size() + cOff + " contacts<br/>");
Spanned l2 = Html.fromHtml("query took " + cOn + ms / 1000f + cOff + " s (" + cOn + ms + cOff + " ms)");

Log.d(TAG, "\n\n╔══════ query execution stats ═══════" );
Log.d(TAG, "║    " + l1);
Log.d(TAG, "║    " + l2);
Log.d(TAG, "╚════════════════════════════════════" );
SpannableStringBuilder msg = new SpannableStringBuilder().append(l1).append(l2);

LinearLayout ll = new LinearLayout(this);
ll.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL);
TextView tv = new TextView(this);
tv.setTextSize(20);
tv.setBackgroundColor(0xff000033);
tv.setPadding(24, 8, 24, 24);
tv.setText(msg);
ll.addView(tv);
ListView lv = new ListView(this);
lv.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<AddressBookContact>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, list));
ll.addView(lv);
new AlertDialog.Builder(this).setView(ll).setPositiveButton("close", null).create().show();

the helper AddressBookContact class:

class AddressBookContact {
    private long id;
    private Resources res;
    private String name;
    private LongSparseArray<String> emails;
    private LongSparseArray<String> phones;

    AddressBookContact(long id, String name, Resources res) {
        this.id = id;
        this.name = name;
        this.res = res;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return toString(false);
    }

    public String toString(boolean rich) {
        SpannableStringBuilder builder = new SpannableStringBuilder();
        if (rich) {
            builder.append("id: ").append(Long.toString(id))
                    .append(", name: ").append("\u001b[1m").append(name).append("\u001b[0m");
        } else {
            builder.append(name);
        }

        if (phones != null) {
            builder.append("\n\tphones: ");
            for (int i = 0; i < phones.size(); i++) {
                int type = (int) phones.keyAt(i);
                builder.append(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.getTypeLabel(res, type, ""))
                        .append(": ")
                        .append(phones.valueAt(i));
                if (i + 1 < phones.size()) {
                    builder.append(", ");
                }
            }
        }

        if (emails != null) {
            builder.append("\n\temails: ");
            for (int i = 0; i < emails.size(); i++) {
                int type = (int) emails.keyAt(i);
                builder.append(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email.getTypeLabel(res, type, ""))
                        .append(": ")
                        .append(emails.valueAt(i));
                if (i + 1 < emails.size()) {
                    builder.append(", ");
                }
            }
        }
        return builder.toString();
    }

    public void addEmail(int type, String address) {
        if (emails == null) {
            emails = new LongSparseArray<String>();
        }
        emails.put(type, address);
    }

    public void addPhone(int type, String number) {
        if (phones == null) {
            phones = new LongSparseArray<String>();
        }
        phones.put(type, number);
    }
}

Thanks alot gonna try that :) will get back to you with my results — itay83, Nov 09 '14 at 08:26
not yet I'm on some other project will get back to check this later i'll keep you posted :) and thanks again! from what I see from u're results my 700 contacts should load in few seconds hope this will actually be the result — itay83, Nov 09 '14 at 18:02
Yes, I'm interested in the results too, so please let me know when you test it... — pskink, Nov 09 '14 at 18:07
Hey it's working great!!! 11-11 10:00:08.907: D/TAG(32169): ╔══════ query execution stats ═══════ 11-11 10:00:08.907: D/TAG(32169): ║ got 959 contacts 11-11 10:00:08.917: D/TAG(32169): ║ query took 1.985 s (1985 ms) 11-11 10:00:08.917: D/TAG(32169): ╚════════════════════════════════════ Thanks alot! gonna use it :)) — itay83, Nov 11 '14 at 08:01
hmm, you must have very slow device since 1985 ms per 700 contacts is ~3 ms / contact, and my emulator did 60 contacts in 12 ms so its 0.2 ms / contact... btw what device is it? also is it an average time based on multiple runs or just first run? — pskink, Nov 11 '14 at 08:06
It's the result of the first run... I run this on samsung galaxy 5 I'm now integrating it into my code so I will run it (bit customly) multiple times You really helped me with this code Thanks alot again — itay83, Nov 11 '14 at 08:23
This is definitely very quick and effective, I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how to get the address/ location (StructuredPostal is the commonDataKinds). Anyone have any advice? — PGMacDesign, Nov 04 '15 at 21:33
@Silmarilos change `selection` and `selectionArgs` for this new `CommonDataKinds` — pskink, Nov 04 '15 at 21:37
Great answer and perfect outout. I have only 1 question -> how can i get only email address on listview click ? — rushank shah, Jun 02 '16 at 18:09
Yes. i have use emails field but when i click on listview item then how can i get email address of that contact (on toast) .? — rushank shah, Jun 02 '16 at 18:19
yes by using adapter.getItem()..i have used `public void onItemClick(AdapterView> parent, View view, int position, long id) { String second = list.get(position).emails.toString(); }` but it gives me only 1st position record. — rushank shah, Jun 02 '16 at 18:23
@rushankshah if you are clicking on the first item the `position` is 0, if you are clicking on the second item the `position` is 1 etc — pskink, Jun 02 '16 at 18:27
I have bind the adapter with `AutoCompleteTextView` . so every time i am getting 0th position data. — rushank shah, Jun 02 '16 at 18:30
@rushankshah what is the value of `position` in `onItemClick` method? — pskink, Jun 02 '16 at 18:31
It shows 0 if i am selecting 1st name , shows 1st if i am selecting 2nd name. But actually the position of that name and email is 20th. — rushank shah, Jun 02 '16 at 18:33
@pskink..if u dont mind can u plz see this [question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/39268248/access-email-id-along-with-name-and-phone-number-from-contact-list-in-android)..i am having trouble in getting email along with name and phone number. — sunil y, Sep 02 '16 at 04:38
yes..but i have to send to the php server..in my question i have explained my problem..can u please see that..?where i am going wrong..? — sunil y, Sep 02 '16 at 04:48
@sunily so iterate over `List list` and send every item to your server: `for (AddressBookContact item : list) { ...` — pskink, Sep 02 '16 at 04:49
@pskink.i have implemented like ur code..it is working fine..but can u pls explain how to send tot he php server..i mean how to convert that to JSONArray and send to server.. — sunil y, Sep 02 '16 at 06:36
@pskink how to get those values separately..i mean email,number,name in separate Strings and how to create json array..? — sunil y, Sep 02 '16 at 07:26
@pskink can you help me to get call logs faster and group and show count of sequential called number — Sagar, Sep 14 '17 at 05:30
@pskink..if u don't mind can you please see this (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46219231/how-to-load-call-logs-faster-like-other-apps-and-display-like-attached-image) question.I am having trouble in loading call log faster — Sagar, Sep 15 '17 at 08:32
Wow, great, this actually uses a SINGLE query, which guarantees maximum performance.. This is the right answer, I can't believe how most of other answers use multiple queries for a simple use case like this.. — Marko Gajić, Sep 19 '17 at 10:49
@MarkoGajić this is normal, most users blindly use ^C / ^V without any 5 minute reflection on how some things could be done better - the best example is hundreds of posts here on how to move / scale / rotate images - they use huge amount of spaghetti code while it can be done using [this](https://stackoverflow.com/a/21657145/2252830) simple `MatrixGestureDetector` — pskink, Sep 20 '17 at 06:27

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 19 '15 at 12:07

try this code ,use a progress dialouge

public void getAllContacts() {


    new AsyncTask<String, String, ArrayList<UserInfo>>() {

        ArrayList<UserInfo> infos = new ArrayList<>();

        @Override
        protected void onPreExecute() {
            super.onPreExecute();
        }

        @Override
        protected ArrayList<UserInfo> doInBackground(String... params) {

            ContentResolver contactResolver = context.getContentResolver();

            Cursor cursor = contactResolver.query(ContactsContract.Contacts.CONTENT_URI, new String[] { ContactsContract.Contacts._ID,
                    ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME, ContactsContract.Contacts.HAS_PHONE_NUMBER }, null, null, null);

            if(cursor.getCount()>0)
            while ( cursor.moveToNext()) {

                String displayName = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME));
               // String photoUri = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.Contacts.PHOTO_THUMBNAIL_URI));
                String contactId = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.Contacts._ID));
              //  String lookupKey = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.Contacts.LOOKUP_KEY));

                Log.d("TAG",  " Name: " + displayName);

                if (Integer.parseInt(cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.Contacts.HAS_PHONE_NUMBER))) > 0)
                {
                    Cursor pCur = contactResolver.query(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.CONTENT_URI,
                            null,
                            ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.CONTACT_ID + " = ?", new String[] { contactId }, null);

                    while (pCur.moveToNext())
                    {
                        String phone = pCur.getString(pCur.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.NUMBER));
                        String type = pCur.getString(pCur.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.TYPE));
                        String s = (String) ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.getTypeLabel(context.getResources(), Integer.parseInt(type), "");

                        Log.d("TAG", s + " phone: " + phone);
                    }
                    pCur.close();
                }

                Cursor emailCursor = contactResolver.query(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email.CONTENT_URI,
                        null,
                        ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email.CONTACT_ID + " = ?", new String[] { contactId }, null);

                while (emailCursor.moveToNext())
                {
                    String phone = emailCursor.getString(emailCursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email.DATA));
                    int type = emailCursor.getInt(emailCursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email.TYPE));
                    String s = (String) ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email.getTypeLabel(context.getResources(), type, "");

                    Log.d("TAG", s + " email: " + phone);
                }

                emailCursor.close();

            }  cursor.close();

            return null;
        }

        @Override
        protected void onPostExecute(ArrayList<UserInfo> aVoid) {
            super.onPostExecute(aVoid);
            // EventBus.getDefault().post(aVoid);
        }
    }.execute();

}

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 24 '15 at 13:48

You retrieve all columns in your query:

Cursor cur = cr.query(ContactsContract.Contacts.CONTENT_URI,
                    null, null, null, null);

This makes the data processing much slower. If you define an array of columns which you really need to retrieve, it will be much faster.

Android fetch all contact list (name, email, phone) takes more then a minute for about 700 contacts

3 Answers3

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