Removeing from SQLite database takes a long time, causing hangs

Question

I use a SQLite Database in my app. For a specific action, I want to remove multiple (could be quite some, up to approx. a hundred) entries in a specific table. I have tried doing this by calling deleteStuffLink() as many times as needed in a for loop, and adding the loop inside the deleteStuffLink() method. Both of those ways resulted in a 3 second hang for only 15 items.

What is causing this slow behavior, and how can I resolve it?

Normal delete method
for (String s : nameArray) { deleteStuffLink(s); }

public void deleteStuffLink(String name) {
    SQLiteDatabase db;
    db = getWritableDatabase();
    db.execSQL("DELETE FROM " + TABLE_LinkTable 
        + " WHERE " + LT_COLUMN_NAME + "=\"" + name + "\";");
    db.close();
}

With loop incorporated

public void deleteAllStuffLink(ArrayList<String> nameArray) {
    SQLiteDatabase db;
    db = getWritableDatabase();
    for (String s : nameArray) {
        db.execSQL("DELETE FROM " + TABLE_LinkTable 
            + " WHERE " + LT_COLUMN_NAME + "=\"" + s + "\";");
    }
    db.close();
}

Answer 1

As CommonsWare comment,

public void deleteAllStuffLink(ArrayList<String> nameArray) {
    SQLiteDatabase db;
    db = getWritableDatabase();
   db.beginTransaction();
    for (String s : nameArray) {
        db.execSQL("DELETE FROM " + TABLE_LinkTable 
            + " WHERE " + LT_COLUMN_NAME + "=\"" + s + "\";");
    }
   db.setTransactionSuccessful();
   db.endTransaction();
    db.close();
}