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Categorical Index Of SQLite Documents

Overview Documents
About SQLite A high-level overview of what SQLite is and why you might be interested in using it.
Appropriate Uses For SQLite This document describes situations where SQLite is an appropriate database engine to use versus situations where a client/server database engine might be a better choice.
Distinctive Features This document enumerates and describes some of the features of SQLite that make it different from other SQL database engines.
How SQLite Is Tested The reliability and robustness of SQLite is achieved in large part by thorough and careful testing. This document identifies the many tests that occur before every release of SQLite.
Copyright SQLite is in the public domain. This document describes what that means and the implications for contributors.
Frequently Asked Questions The title of the document says all...
Books About SQLite A list of independently written books about SQLite.
Alphabetical Listing Of Documents A list of all titled pages on this website, sorted by title.
Website Keyword Index A cross-reference from keywords to various pages within this website.
Permuted Title Index Also known as a "keyword in context" or "KWIC" index or as a concordance, this document is a listing of all other documents sorted by keyword.
SQLite Programming Interfaces
Documentation describing the APIs used to program SQLite, and the SQL dialect that it interprets.
SQLite In 5 Minutes Or Less A very quick introduction to programming with SQLite.
Introduction to the C/C++ API  This document introduces the C/C++ API. Users should read this document before the C/C++ API Reference Guide linked below.
How To Compile SQLite Instructions and hints for compiling SQLite C code and integrating that code with your own application.
C/C++ API Reference This document describes each API function separately.
Result Codes A description of the meanings of the numeric result codes returned by various C/C++ interfaces.
Tcl API A description of the TCL interface bindings for SQLite.
SQL Syntax This document describes the SQL language that is understood by SQLite.
Pragma commands This document describes SQLite performance tuning options and other special purpose database commands.
DataTypes SQLite version 3 introduces the concept of manifest typing, where the type of a value is associated with the value itself, not the column that it is stored in. This page describes data typing for SQLite version 3 in further detail.
SQLite Features and Extensions
Pages describing specific features or extension modules of SQLite.
8+3 Filenames How to make SQLite work on filesystems that only support 8+3 filenames.
Autoincrement A description of the AUTOINCREMENT keyword in SQLite, what it does, why it is sometimes useful, and why it should be avoided if not strictly necessary.
Backup API The online-backup interface can be used to copy content from a disk file into an in-memory database or vice versa and it can make a hot backup of a live database. This application note gives examples of how.
Command-Line Shell Notes on using the "sqlite3.exe" command-line interface that can be used to create, modify, and query arbitrary SQLite database files.
Error and Warning Log SQLite supports an "error and warning log" design to capture information about suspicious and/or error events during operation. Embedded applications are encouraged to enable the error and warning log to help with debugging application problems that arise in the field. This document explains how to do that.
Foreign Key Support This document describes the support for foreign key constraints introduced in version 3.6.19.
Full Text Search A description of the SQLite Full Text Search (FTS3) extension.
Internal versus External Blob Storage Should you store large BLOBs directly in the database, or store them in files and just record the filename in the database? This document seeks to shed light on that question.
Limits In SQLite This document describes limitations of SQLite (the maximum length of a string or blob, the maximum size of a database, the maximum number of tables in a database, etc.) and how these limits can be altered at compile-time and run-time.
Memory-Mapped I/O SQLite supports memory-mapped I/O. Learn how to enable memory-mapped I/O and about the various advantages and disadvantages to using memory-mapped I/O in this document.
Multi-threaded Programs and SQLite SQLite is safe to use in multi-threaded programs. This document provides the details and hints on how to maximize performance.
Null Handling Different SQL database engines handle NULLs in different ways. The SQL standards are ambiguous. This (circa 2003) document describes how SQLite handles NULLs in comparison with other SQL database engines.
Partial Indexes A partial index is an index that only covers a subset of the rows in a table. Learn how to use partial indexes in SQLite from this document.
R-Trees A description of the SQLite R-Tree extension. An R-Tree is a specialized data structure that supports fast multi-dimensional range queries often used in geospatial systems.
Run-Time Loadable Extensions A general overview on how run-time loadable extensions work, how they are compiled, and how developers can create their own run-time loadable extensions for SQLite.
Shared Cache Mode Version 3.3.0 and later supports the ability for two or more database connections to share the same page and schema cache. This feature is useful for certain specialized applications.
Unlock Notify The "unlock notify" feature can be used in conjunction with shared cache mode to more efficiently manage resource conflict (database table locks).
URI Filenames The names of database files can be specified using either an ordinary filename or a URI. Using URI filenames provides additional capabilities, as this document describes.
WITHOUT ROWID Tables The WITHOUT ROWID optimization is a option that can sometimes result in smaller and faster databases.
Write-Ahead Log (WAL) Mode Transaction control using a write-ahead log offers more concurrency and is often faster than the default rollback transactions. This document explains how to use WAL mode for improved performance.
Advocacy
Documents that strive to encourage the use of SQLite.
SQLite As An Application File Format This article advocates using SQLite as an application file format in place of XML or JSON or a "pile-of-file".
Well Known Users This page lists a small subset of the many thousands of devices and application programs that make use of SQLite.
SQLite Technical/Design Documentation
These documents are oriented toward describing the internal implementation details and operation of SQLite.
How Database Corruption Can Occur SQLite is highly resistent to database corruption. But application, OS, and hardware bugs can still result in corrupt database files. This article describes many of the ways that SQLite database files can go corrupt.
Temporary Files Used By SQLite SQLite can potentially use many different temporary files when processing certain SQL statements. This document describes the many kinds of temporary files that SQLite uses and offers suggestions for avoiding them on systems where creating a temporary file is an expensive operation.
In-Memory Databases SQLite normally stores content in a disk file. However, it can also be used as an in-memory database engine. This document explains how.
How SQLite Implements Atomic Commit A description of the logic within SQLite that implements transactions with atomic commit, even in the face of power failures.
Dynamic Memory Allocation in SQLite SQLite has a sophisticated memory allocation subsystem that can be configured and customized to meet memory usage requirements of the application and that is robust against out-of-memory conditions and leak-free. This document provides the details.
Customizing And Porting SQLite This document explains how to customize the build of SQLite and how to port SQLite to new platforms.
Locking And Concurrency
In SQLite Version 3
A description of how the new locking code in version 3 increases concurrency and decreases the problem of writer starvation.
Isolation In SQLite When we say that SQLite transactions are "serializable" what exactly does that mean? How and when are changes made visible within the same database connection and to other database connections?
Overview Of The Optimizer A quick overview of the various query optimizations that are attempted by the SQLite code generator.
The Next-Generation Query Planner Additional information about the SQLite query planner, and in particular the redesign of the query planner that occurred for version 3.8.0.
Architecture An architectural overview of the SQLite library, useful for those who want to hack the code.
VDBE Opcodes This document is an automatically generated description of the various opcodes that the VDBE understands. Programmers can use this document as a reference to better understand the output of EXPLAIN listings from SQLite.
Virtual Filesystem The "VFS" object is the interface between the SQLite core and the underlying operating system. Learn more about how the VFS object works and how to create new VFS objects from this article.
Virtual Tables This article describes the virtual table mechanism and API in SQLite and how it can be used to add new capabilities to the core SQLite library.
SQLite File Format A description of the format used for SQLite database and journal files, and other details required to create software to read and write SQLite databases without using SQLite.
Compilation Options This document describes the compile time options that may be set to modify the default behavior of the library or omit optional features in order to reduce binary size.
Upgrading SQLite, Backwards Compatibility
Moving From SQLite 3.5 to 3.6 A document describing the differences between SQLite version 3.5.9 and 3.6.0.
Moving From SQLite 3.4 to 3.5 A document describing the differences between SQLite version 3.4.2 and 3.5.0.
Release History A chronology of SQLite releases going back to version 1.0.0
Backwards Compatibility This document details all of the incompatible changes to the SQLite file format that have occurred since version 1.0.0.
Private Branches This document suggests procedures for maintaining a private branch or fork of SQLite and keeping that branch or fork in sync with the public SQLite source tree.
Obsolete Documents
The following documents are no longer current and are retained for historical reference only. These documents generally pertain to out-of-date, obsolete, and/or deprecated features and extensions.
Asynchronous IO Mode This page describes the asynchronous IO extension developed alongside SQLite. Using asynchronous IO can cause SQLite to appear more responsive by delegating database writes to a background thread. NB: This extension is deprecated. WAL mode is recommended as a replacement.
Version 2 C/C++ API A description of the C/C++ interface bindings for SQLite through version 2.8
Version 2 DataTypes  A description of how SQLite version 2 handles SQL datatypes. Short summary: Everything is a string.
VDBE Tutorial The VDBE is the subsystem within SQLite that does the actual work of executing SQL statements. This page describes the principles of operation for the VDBE in SQLite version 2.7. This is essential reading for anyone who want to modify the SQLite sources.
SQLite Version 3 A summary of the changes between SQLite version 2.8 and SQLite version 3.0.
Version 3 C/C++ API A summary of the API related changes between SQLite version 2.8 and SQLite version 3.0.
Speed Comparison The speed of version 2.7.6 of SQLite is compared against PostgreSQL and MySQL.