SQLite - Commands

This chapter will take you through simple and useful commands used by SQLite programmers. These commands are called SQLite dot commands and exception with these commands is that they should not be terminated by a semi-colon (;).
Let's start with typing a simple sqlite3 command at command prompt which will provide you with SQLite command prompt where you will issue various SQLite commands.
$sqlite3
SQLite version 3.3.6
Enter ".help" for instructions
sqlite>

For a listing of the available dot commands, you can enter ".help" any time. For example −
sqlite>.help
The above command will display a list of various important SQLite dot commands, which are listed in the following table.
.backup ?DB? FILE
Backup DB (default "main") to FILE
.bail ON|OFF
Stop after hitting an error. Default OFF
.databases
List names and files of attached databases
.dump ?TABLE?
Dump the database in an SQL text format. If TABLE specified, only dump tables matching LIKE pattern TABLE
.echo ON|OFF
Turn command echo on or off
.exit
Exit SQLite prompt
.explain ON|OFF
Turn output mode suitable for EXPLAIN on or off. With no args, it turns EXPLAIN on
.header(s) ON|OFF
Turn display of headers on or off
.help
Show this message
.import FILE TABLE
Import data from FILE into TABLE
.indices ?TABLE?
Show names of all indices. If TABLE specified, only show indices for tables matching LIKE pattern TABLE
.load FILE ?ENTRY?
Load an extension library
.log FILE|off
Turn logging on or off. FILE can be stderr/stdout
.mode MODE
Set output mode where MODE is one of −
csv − Comma-separated values
csv − Comma-separated values
column − Left-aligned columns.
column − Left-aligned columns.
html − HTML <table> code
html − HTML <table> code
insert − SQL insert statements for TABLE
insert − SQL insert statements for TABLE
line − One value per line
line − One value per line
list − Values delimited by .separator string
list − Values delimited by .separator string
tabs − Tab-separated values
tabs − Tab-separated values
tcl − TCL list elements
tcl − TCL list elements
.nullvalue STRING
Print STRING in place of NULL values
.output FILENAME
Send output to FILENAME
.output stdout
 Send output to the screen
.print STRING...
Print literal STRING
.prompt MAIN CONTINUE
Replace the standard prompts
.quit
Exit SQLite prompt
.read FILENAME
Execute SQL in FILENAME
.schema ?TABLE?
Show the CREATE statements. If TABLE specified, only show tables matching LIKE pattern TABLE
.separator STRING
Change separator used by output mode and .import
.show
Show the current values for various settings
.stats ON|OFF
Turn stats on or off
.tables ?PATTERN?
List names of tables matching a LIKE pattern
.timeout MS
Try opening locked tables for MS milliseconds
.width NUM NUM
Set column widths for "column" mode
.timer ON|OFF 
Turn the CPU timer measurement on or off
Let's try .show command to see default setting for your SQLite command prompt.
sqlite>.show
     echo: off
  explain: off
  headers: off
     mode: column
nullvalue: ""
   output: stdout
separator: "|"
    width:
sqlite>
Make sure there is no space in between sqlite> prompt and dot command, otherwise it will not work.
You can use the following sequence of dot commands to format your output.
sqlite>.header on
sqlite>.mode column
sqlite>.timer on
sqlite>
The above setting will produce the output in the following format.
ID          NAME        AGE         ADDRESS     SALARY
----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------
1           Paul        32          California  20000.0
2           Allen       25          Texas       15000.0
3           Teddy       23          Norway      20000.0
4           Mark        25          Rich-Mond   65000.0
5           David       27          Texas       85000.0
6           Kim         22          South-Hall  45000.0
7           James       24          Houston     10000.0
CPU Time: user 0.000000 sys 0.000000

The master table holds the key information about your database tables and it is called sqlite_master. You can see its schema as follows −
sqlite>.schema sqlite_master
This will produce the following result.
CREATE TABLE sqlite_master (
   type text,
   name text,
   tbl_name text,
   rootpage integer,
   sql text
);


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