I couldn't find the API at first, because for some strange reason it is called SQLiteDatabase#compileStatement rather than the usual prepare used in the underlying C API. In fact I would prefer to use prepared statements, because compilation of SQL is slow compared to it's execution, and because it avoids doing string operations on potentially untrusted values. The SQLiteQueryBuilder might also be useful if you have some common subqueries that you want to compose together in different ways.

Personally I think that any non-trivial SQL is easier to read as SQL than as pieces composed with helper like this, so I'd use rawQuery over SQLiteQueryBuilder, but that's a matter of taste and how well you know SQL. Since SQLiteQueryBuilder is an extra object, you'd only construct it if you need it's power. The SQLiteQueryBuilder can create joins, unions and such. The SQLiteDatabase#query() can only compose simple queries from one table. Both SQLiteDatabase#query() and SQLiteQueryBuilder are just helpers to compose the SQL. The primary method is SQLiteDatabase#rawQuery(). Query(SQLiteDatabase, String, String, String, String, String, String) Perform a query by combining all current settings and the information passed into this method.

Sqlitequerybuilder