faq.tcl

一个小型的嵌入式数据库

  if you do.</p>
}

faq {
  How do I list all tables/indices contained in an SQLite database
} {
  <p>If you are running the <b>sqlite</b> command-line access program
  you can type "<b>.tables</b>" to get a list of all tables.  Or you
  can type "<b>.schema</b>" to see the complete database schema including
  all tables and indices.  Either of these commands can be followed by
  a LIKE pattern that will restrict the tables that are displayed.</p>

  <p>From within a C/C++ program (or a script using Tcl/Ruby/Perl/Python
  bindings) you can get access to table and index names by doing a SELECT
  on a special table named "<b>SQLITE_MASTER</b>".  Every SQLite database
  has an SQLITE_MASTER table that defines the schema for the database.
  The SQLITE_MASTER table looks like this:</p>
<blockquote><pre>
CREATE TABLE sqlite_master (
  type TEXT,
  name TEXT,
  tbl_name TEXT,
  rootpage INTEGER,
  sql TEXT
);
</pre></blockquote>
  <p>For tables, the <b>type</b> field will always be <b>'table'</b> and the
  <b>name</b> field will be the name of the table.  So to get a list of
  all tables in the database, use the following SELECT command:</p>
<blockquote><pre>
SELECT name FROM sqlite_master
WHERE type='table'
ORDER BY name;
</pre></blockquote>
  <p>For indices, <b>type</b> is equal to <b>'index'</b>, <b>name</b> is the
  name of the index and <b>tbl_name</b> is the name of the table to which
  the index belongs.  For both tables and indices, the <b>sql</b> field is
  the text of the original CREATE TABLE or CREATE INDEX statement that
  created the table or index.  For automatically created indices (used
  to implement the PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraints) the <b>sql</b> field
  is NULL.</p>

  <p>The SQLITE_MASTER table is read-only.  You cannot change this table
  using UPDATE, INSERT, or DELETE.  The table is automatically updated by
  CREATE TABLE, CREATE INDEX, DROP TABLE, and DROP INDEX commands.</p>

  <p>Temporary tables do not appear in the SQLITE_MASTER table.  Temporary
  tables and their indices and triggers occur in another special table
  named SQLITE_TEMP_MASTER.  SQLITE_TEMP_MASTER works just like SQLITE_MASTER
  except that it is only visible to the application that created the 
  temporary tables.  To get a list of all tables, both permanent and
  temporary, one can use a command similar to the following:
<blockquote><pre>
SELECT name FROM 
   (SELECT * FROM sqlite_master UNION ALL
    SELECT * FROM sqlite_temp_master)
WHERE type='table'
ORDER BY name
</pre></blockquote>
}

faq {
  Are there any known size limits to SQLite databases?
} {
  <p>As of version 2.7.4, 
  SQLite can handle databases up to 2<sup>41</sup> bytes (2 terabytes)
  in size on both Windows and Unix.  Older version of SQLite
  were limited to databases of 2<sup>31</sup> bytes (2 gigabytes).</p>

  <p>SQLite version 2.8 limits the amount of data in one row to 
  1 megabyte.  SQLite version 3.0 has no limit on the amount of
  data that can be stored in a single row.
  </p>

  <p>The names of tables, indices, view, triggers, and columns can be
  as long as desired.  However, the names of SQL functions (as created
  by the <a href="c_interface.html#cfunc">sqlite_create_function()</a> API)
  may not exceed 255 characters in length.</p>
}

faq {
  What is the maximum size of a VARCHAR in SQLite?
} {
  <p>SQLite does not enforce datatype constraints.
  A VARCHAR column can hold as much data as you care to put in it.</p>
}

faq {
  Does SQLite support a BLOB type?
} {
  <p>SQLite version 3.0 lets you puts BLOB data into any column, even
  columns that are declared to hold some other type.</p>

  <p>SQLite version 2.8 will store any text data without embedded
  '\000' characters.  If you need to store BLOB data in SQLite version
  2.8 you'll want to encode that data first.
  There is a source file named 
  "<b>src/encode.c</b>" in the SQLite version 2.8 distribution that contains
  implementations of functions named "<b>sqlite_encode_binary()</b>
  and <b>sqlite_decode_binary()</b> that can be used for converting
  binary data to ASCII and back again, if you like.</p>

 
}

faq {
  How do I add or delete columns from an existing table in SQLite.
} {
  <p>SQLite does yes not support the "ALTER TABLE" SQL command.  If you
  what to change the structure of a table, you have to recreate the
  table.  You can save existing data to a temporary table, drop the
  old table, create the new table, then copy the data back in from
  the temporary table.</p>

  <p>For example, suppose you have a table named "t1" with columns
  names "a", "b", and "c" and that you want to delete column "c" from
  this table.  The following steps illustrate how this could be done:
  </p>

  <blockquote><pre>
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE t1_backup(a,b);
INSERT INTO t1_backup SELECT a,b FROM t1;
DROP TABLE t1;
CREATE TABLE t1(a,b);
INSERT INTO t1 SELECT a,b FROM t1_backup;
DROP TABLE t1_backup;
COMMIT;
</pre></blockquote>
}

faq {
  I deleted a lot of data but the database file did not get any
  smaller.  Is this a bug?
} {
  <p>No.  When you delete information from an SQLite database, the
  unused disk space is added to an internal "free-list" and is reused
  the next time you insert data.  The disk space is not lost.  But
  neither is it returned to the operating system.</p>

  <p>If you delete a lot of data and want to shrink the database file,
  run the VACUUM command (version 2.8.1 and later).  VACUUM will reconstruct
  the database from scratch.  This will leave the database with an empty
  free-list and a file that is minimal in size.  Note, however, that the
  VACUUM can take some time to run (around a half second per megabyte
  on the Linux box where SQLite is developed) and it can use up to twice
  as much temporary disk space as the original file while it is running.
  </p>

  <p>As of SQLite version 3.1, an alternative to using the VACUUM command
  is auto-vacuum mode, enabled using the 
  <a href="pragma.html#pragma_auto_vacuum">auto_vacuum pragma</a>.</p>
}

faq {
  Can I use SQLite in my commercial product without paying royalties?
} {
  <p>Yes.  SQLite is in the public domain.  No claim of ownership is made
  to any part of the code.  You can do anything you want with it.</p>
}

faq {
  How do I use a string literal that contains an embedded single-quote (')
  character?
} {
  <p>The SQL standard specifies that single-quotes in strings are escaped
  by putting two single quotes in a row.  SQL works like the Pascal programming
  language in the regard.  SQLite follows this standard.  Example:
  </p>

  <blockquote><pre>
    INSERT INTO xyz VALUES('5 O''clock');
  </pre></blockquote>
}

faq {What is an SQLITE_SCHEMA error, and why am I getting one?} {
  <p>In version 3 of SQLite, an SQLITE_SCHEMA error is returned when a 
  prepared SQL statement is no longer valid and cannot be executed.
  When this occurs, the statement must be recompiled from SQL using 
  the sqlite3_prepare() API. In SQLite 3, an SQLITE_SCHEMA error can
  only occur when using the sqlite3_prepare()/sqlite3_step()/sqlite3_finalize()
  API to execute SQL, not when using the sqlite3_exec(). This was not
  the case in version 2.</p>

  <p>The most common reason for a prepared statement to become invalid
  is that the schema of the database was modified after the SQL was 
  prepared (possibly by another process).  The other reasons this can 
  happen are:</p> 
  <ul>
  <li>A database was DETACHed.
  <li>A user-function definition was deleted or changed.
  <li>A collation sequence definition was deleted or changed.
  <li>The authorization function was changed.
  </ul>

  <p>In all cases, the solution is to recompile the statement from SQL
  and attempt to execute it again. Because a prepared statement can be
  invalidated by another process changing the database schema, all code
  that uses the sqlite3_prepare()/sqlite3_step()/sqlite3_finalize()
  API should be prepared to handle SQLITE_SCHEMA errors. An example
  of one approach to this follows:</p>

  <blockquote><pre>

    int rc;
    sqlite3_stmt *pStmt;
    char zSql[] = "SELECT .....";

    do {
      /* Compile the statement from SQL. Assume success. */
      sqlite3_prepare(pDb, zSql, -1, &pStmt, 0);

      while( SQLITE_ROW==sqlite3_step(pStmt) ){
        /* Do something with the row of available data */
      }

      /* Finalize the statement. If an SQLITE_SCHEMA error has
      ** occured, then the above call to sqlite3_step() will have
      ** returned SQLITE_ERROR. sqlite3_finalize() will return
      ** SQLITE_SCHEMA. In this case the loop will execute again.
      */
      rc = sqlite3_finalize(pStmt);
    } while( rc==SQLITE_SCHEMA );
    
  </pre></blockquote>
}

# End of questions and answers.
#############

puts {<h2>Frequently Asked Questions</h2>}

# puts {<DL COMPACT>}
# for {set i 1} {$i<$cnt} {incr i} {
#   puts "  <DT><A HREF=\"#q$i\">($i)</A></DT>"
#   puts "  <DD>[lindex $faq($i) 0]</DD>"
# }
# puts {</DL>}
puts {<OL>}
for {set i 1} {$i<$cnt} {incr i} {
  puts "<li><a href=\"#q$i\">[lindex $faq($i) 0]</a></li>"
}
puts {</OL>}

for {set i 1} {$i<$cnt} {incr i} {
  puts "<A NAME=\"q$i\"><HR />"
  puts "<P><B>($i) [lindex $faq($i) 0]</B></P>\n"
  puts "<BLOCKQUOTE>[lindex $faq($i) 1]</BLOCKQUOTE></LI>\n"
}

puts {</OL>}
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