SQLite

TW . Web Technologies Course

MM, 2020/21 Edition

Sérgio Nunes
DEI, FEUP, U.Porto
Database Management Systems
➔ Database Management Systems (DBMS) are software applications that provide features
do define, create, maintain, and control databases.

➔ DBMS are typically targeted at a specific database model, such as the relational model
(RDBMS), the object oriented (OODBMS), or others.

➔ DBMS architectures typically follow a client-server model, where clients (e.g. applications)
interact with a centralized server managing the database.

➔ An alternative architecture is a serverless model where access to the database is done via
library calls, without message passing between different processes. The most popular
example is SQLite.

➔ Question: Where can we see databases in use?

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DBMS Features
➔ Features that a DBMS can provide:

➔ Data storage, retrieval and update;

➔ Constrain enforcement over data;
➔ Schema management;
➔ Support for transactions and concurrency;
➔ Recovery from failure;
➔ Access control for data interaction;
➔ And many more...

➔ Popular commercial RDBMS include: Oracle, MS SQL Server, IBM DB2.

➔ Open-source RDBMS include: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite.

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SQLite

➔ SQLite is a serverless, ACID compliant, open-source RDBMS.

➔ It is commonly used in mobile phones, operating systems, applications (e.g.

browsers), amount others. It is the most used database in the world.

➔ A SQLite database is a single file.

➔ Interaction with a SQLite database is done via library calls.

➔ http://sqlite.org

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 UNIX command to list directory contents

Open SQLite database

SQLite command to list all existing tables (.tables)

SQLite command to print the schema of a table

(.schema students)

SQL command to list all students from student table

Install SQLite

➔ SQLite is provided as an executable file.

➔ Simply download your operating system version and copy the sqlite3 / sqlite3.exe to
your project folder.

➔ If you plan to use SQLite in other projects you should copy SQLite to a folder that is
accessible system-wide. This requires some additional knowledge on configuring the
system path.

➔ If you open the sqlite3 application (e.g. double click) you will see the SQLite
command line interface. You can exit this interface by entering the command ".quit".

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Ongoing example

➔ Download an example SQLite database from:

➔ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Omc8TaqNrvwdlv_tlZTXfHoeaMXlUyFX/view?usp=sharing

➔ Copy this file to the project's folder, where sqlite3 is.

➔ Open sqlite3 and then open the database with the command:

➔ .open course_projects.sqlite

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Using SQLite

➔ You can type ".help" in the SQLite command line interface to see a summary
of all the available commands.

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SQLite Commands

➔ SQLite commands can be divided in three types:

➔ Meta Commands, which are used to interact with databases (e.g. open,
view, save), view or define SQLite settings, and other administrative
operations. These commands start with a dot (.) - .help

➔ SQL Data Definition Language (DDL), standard SQL commands to

create, alter, and delete database tables.

➔ SQL Data Manipulation Language (DML), standard SQL commands to

query, add, alter, and delete data.

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.help
➔ .help ?-all? ?PATTERN?

➔ Show help text for PATTERN.

➔ [ .help ] shows a list of available commands.

➔ [ .help <command> ] provides details about a specific command.

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.open
➔ .open ?OPTIONS? ?FILE?

➔ Close existing database and reopen FILE.

➔ [ .open --new ] creates a new empty database.

➔ [ .open --readonly ] opens FILE in readonly mode.

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.tables
➔ .tables ?TABLE?

➔ List names of tables matching LIKE pattern TABLE.

➔ [ .tables ] lists all tables in the currently open database.

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.schema
➔ .schema ?--indent? ?PATTERN?

➔ Show the CREATE statements matching PATTERN.

➔ The indent option tries to pretty-print the schema.

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.header
➔ .headers on|off

➔ Turn display of headers on or off.

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.mode
➔ .mode MODE ?TABLE?

➔ Set output mode (e.g. csv, column, html, insert, line, etc).

➔ [ .mode column ] shows results using the default table layout.

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.width
➔ .width NUM1 NUM2 ...

➔ Set column width (in characters) for column mode.

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.read
➔ .read FILE

➔ Read input from FILE.

➔ [ .read mydb.sql ] executes all SQL statements in the mysb.sql file.

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.save
➔ .save FILE

➔ Write the in-memory database into FILE.

➔ [ .save mydb.sqlite ] saves the currently active (in-memory) database to the

mydb.sqlite file.

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Install DB Browser for SQLite

➔ DB Browser for SQLite is an open-source graphical user interface (GUI) to

interact with SQLite databases.

➔ https://sqlitebrowser.org

➔ Download and install latest release (menu option "GitHub").

➔ DB Browser can be used to open and alter existing databases or to create

new SQLite databases.

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Data Manipulation Language

➔ Standard SQL can be used to query a database.

➔ SELECT * FROM students;

➔ SELECT student.name, groups.name

FROM student, groups
WHERE student.groups_id = groups.id;

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Data Definition Language

➔ Standard SQL can be used to create, alter, or delete tables.

➔ CREATE TABLE book (

id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
name TEXT
);

➔ ALTER TABLE book RENAME TO books;

➔ ALTER TABLE books

ADD COLUMN author TEXT;

➔ DROP TABLE books;

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Creating a Database

➔ To create a new database you create a text file (script) with all the SQL
statements necessary to create the tables.

➔ Then, you have two ways to create the SQLite database:

➔ In SQLite, with the command [ .read script_file.sql ]

➔ In the command line:

➔ Linux / OSX: [ sqlite3 database.sqlite3 < script_file.sql ]

➔ Windows: [ sqlite3.exe DB.db ".read script_file.sql" ]

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Populating a Database

➔ To insert data to a SQLite database, you create a text file with the SQL
statements necessary to insert each record to each table.

➔ You have two ways to execute this SQL script:

➔ In SQLite, with the command [ .read script_inserts.sql ]

➔ In the command line:

➔ Linux / OSX: [ sqlite3 database.sqlite3 < script_inserts.sql ]

➔ Windows: [ sqlite3.exe DB.db ".read script_inserts.sql" ]

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