Its the Database version you ship with the Application. So in the future if you want to add a table or delete a column or anything which differs from the previous Database version. This version Number will come handy.
This is an example of how I manuplated DB on upgrades of my application: The method is defined by the framework, onUpgrade()
Class Level Variable:
private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 4;
Check against the current version:
@Override
public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
if (oldVersion < 2) {
db.execSQL(DATABASE_CREATEX);
}
if (oldVersion < 3) {
db.execSQL(DATABASE_CREATEC);
}
if (oldVersion < 4) {
final String ALTER_TBL = "ALTER TABLE " + DATABASE_TABLE1
+ " ADD COLUMN Vcost text;";
final String ALTER_TBL1 = "ALTER TABLE " + DATABASE_TABLE1
+ " ADD COLUMN Vmedicine text;";
db.execSQL(ALTER_TBL);
db.execSQL(ALTER_TBL1);
final String ALTER_TBL2 = "ALTER TABLE " + DATABASE_TABLE2
+ " ADD COLUMN Dcost text;";
final String ALTER_TBL3 = "ALTER TABLE " + DATABASE_TABLE2
+ " ADD COLUMN Dmedicine text;";
db.execSQL(ALTER_TBL2);
db.execSQL(ALTER_TBL3);
}
}
So it checks based on all versions of the DB and it acts according to the current version which is present on the device.