How to Apply a SQLite Command to All Tables - sqlite

Say that I want to run the following SQLite command to delete all rows in a particular table where the Name column is NULL:
DELETE FROM myTable WHERE Name IS NULL;
Now let's say that I've got 20 tables, and they aren't named in any pattern. I want to delete all rows where the Name column is NULL from every table in the database. Is there a statement I can use to do this in one go? Or will I have to run one statement to get the table names, then take the output and run 20 or so commands using each table name?


Here's my first crack at it from the sqlite3 console :
.output tmp
SELECT "DELETE FROM " || sqlite_master.name ||
" WHERE name is NULL;" FROM sqlite_master
WHERE type = "table" AND sqlite_master.name NOT LIKE 'sqlite_%';
.read tmp
This generates the delete statements for each table, outputs it to a file and then reads and runs that file.
(My comment was about the syntax in another answer, you can only delete from one table per delete statement.)


If you have mandatory column 'Name' in every table, then
DELETE FROM myTable1, myTable2, myTable3 WHERE Name IS NULL;

Related

Replacing white spaces in the fields of a SQLite database [duplicate]

I would need to rename a few columns in some tables in a SQLite database.
I know that a similar question has been asked on stackoverflow previously, but it was for SQL in general, and the case of SQLite was not mentioned.
From the SQLite documentation for ALTER TABLE, I gather that it's not possible to do such a thing "easily" (i.e. a single ALTER TABLE statement).
I was wondering someone knew of a generic SQL way of doing such a thing with SQLite.

Note that as of version 3.25.0 released September 2018 you can now use ALTER TABLE to rename a column.
Example to rename Really Bad : Column Name to BetterColumnName
ALTER TABLE your_table
RENAME COLUMN [Really Bad : Column Name] TO BetterColumnName
Original "create new and drop old table" answer below.
Say you have a table and need to rename "colb" to "col_b":
First create the new table with a temporary name, based on the old table definition but with the updated column name:
CREATE TABLE tmp_table_name (
col_a INT
, col_b INT
);
Then copy the contents across from the original table.
INSERT INTO tmp_table_name(col_a, col_b)
SELECT col_a, colb
FROM orig_table_name;
Drop the old table.
DROP TABLE orig_table_name;
Last you rename the temporary table table to the original:
ALTER TABLE tmp_table_name RENAME TO orig_table_name;
Don't forget to re-create indexes, triggers, etc. The documentation gives a fuller picture of the gotchas and caveats.
Wrapping all this in a BEGIN TRANSACTION; and COMMIT; is also probably a good idea.

This was just fixed with 2018-09-15 (3.25.0)
Enhancements the ALTER TABLE command:
Add support for renaming columns within a table using ALTER TABLE table RENAME COLUMN oldname TO newname.
Fix table rename feature so that it also updates references to the renamed table in triggers and views.
You can find the new syntax documented under ALTER TABLE
The RENAME COLUMN TO syntax changes the column-name of table table-name into new-column-name. The column name is changed both within the table definition itself and also within all indexes, triggers, and views that reference the column. If the column name change would result in a semantic ambiguity in a trigger or view, then the RENAME COLUMN fails with an error and no changes are applied.
Image source: https://www.sqlite.org/images/syntax/alter-table-stmt.gif
Example:
CREATE TABLE tab AS SELECT 1 AS c;
SELECT * FROM tab;
ALTER TABLE tab RENAME COLUMN c to c_new;
SELECT * FROM tab;
db-fiddle.com demo
Android Support
As of writing, Android's API 27 is using SQLite package version 3.19.
Based on the current version that Android is using and that this update is coming in version 3.25.0 of SQLite, I would say you have bit of a wait (approximately API 33) before support for this is added to Android.
And, even then, if you need to support any versions older than the API 33, you will not be able to use this.

Digging around, I found this multiplatform (Linux | Mac | Windows) graphical tool called DB Browser for SQLite that actually allows one to rename columns in a very user friendly way!
Edit | Modify Table | Select Table | Edit Field. Click click! Voila!
However, if someone want to share a programmatic way of doing this, I'd be happy to know!

While it is true that there is no ALTER COLUMN, if you only want to rename the column, drop the NOT NULL constraint, or change the data type, you can use the following set of commands:
Note: These commands have the potential to corrupt your database, so make sure you have a backup
PRAGMA writable_schema = 1;
UPDATE SQLITE_MASTER SET SQL = 'CREATE TABLE BOOKS ( title TEXT NOT NULL, publication_date TEXT)' WHERE NAME = 'BOOKS';
PRAGMA writable_schema = 0;
You will need to either close and reopen your connection or vacuum the database to reload the changes into the schema.
For example:
Y:\> sqlite3 booktest
SQLite version 3.7.4
Enter ".help" for instructions
Enter SQL statements terminated with a ";"
sqlite> create table BOOKS ( title TEXT NOT NULL, publication_date TEXT NOT NULL);
sqlite> insert into BOOKS VALUES ("NULLTEST",null);
Error: BOOKS.publication_date may not be NULL
sqlite> PRAGMA writable_schema = 1;
sqlite> UPDATE SQLITE_MASTER SET SQL = 'CREATE TABLE BOOKS ( title TEXT NOT NULL, publication_date TEXT)' WHERE NAME = 'BOOKS';
sqlite> PRAGMA writable_schema = 0;
sqlite> .q
Y:\> sqlite3 booktest
SQLite version 3.7.4
Enter ".help" for instructions
Enter SQL statements terminated with a ";"
sqlite> insert into BOOKS VALUES ("NULLTEST",null);
sqlite> .q
REFERENCES FOLLOW:
pragma writable_schema
When this pragma is on, the SQLITE_MASTER tables in which database can be changed using ordinary UPDATE, INSERT, and DELETE statements. Warning: misuse of this pragma can easily result in a corrupt database file.
alter table
SQLite supports a limited subset of ALTER TABLE. The ALTER TABLE command in SQLite allows the user to rename a table or to add a new column to an existing table. It is not possible to rename a column, remove a column, or add or remove constraints from a table.

Recently I had to do that in SQLite3 with a table named points with the colunms id, lon, lat. Erroneusly, when the table was imported, the values for latitude where stored in the lon column and viceversa, so an obvious fix would be to rename those columns. So the trick was:
create table points_tmp as select id, lon as lat, lat as lon from points;
drop table points;
alter table points_tmp rename to points;
I hope this would be useful for you!

CASE 1 : SQLite 3.25.0+
Only the Version 3.25.0 of SQLite supports renaming columns. If your device is meeting this requirement, things are quite simple. The below query would solve your problem:
ALTER TABLE "MyTable" RENAME COLUMN "OldColumn" TO "NewColumn";
CASE 2 : SQLite Older Versions
You have to follow a different Approach to get the result which might be a little tricky
For example, if you have a table like this:
CREATE TABLE student(Name TEXT, Department TEXT, Location TEXT)
And if you wish to change the name of the column Location
Step 1: Rename the original table:
ALTER TABLE student RENAME TO student_temp;
Step 2: Now create a new table student with correct column name:
CREATE TABLE student(Name TEXT, Department TEXT, Address TEXT)
Step 3: Copy the data from the original table to the new table:
INSERT INTO student(Name, Department, Address) SELECT Name, Department, Location FROM student_temp;
Note: The above command should be all one line.
Step 4: Drop the original table:
DROP TABLE student_temp;
With these four steps you can manually change any SQLite table.
Keep in mind that you will also need to recreate any indexes, viewers or triggers on the new table as well.

Quoting the sqlite documentation:
SQLite supports a limited subset of
ALTER TABLE. The ALTER TABLE command
in SQLite allows the user to rename a
table or to add a new column to an
existing table. It is not possible to rename a colum, remove a column, or add or remove constraints from a table.
What you can do of course is, create a new table with the new layout, SELECT * FROM old_table, and fill the new table with the values you'll receive.

First off, this is one of those things that slaps me in the face with surprise: renaming of a column requires creating an entirely new table and copying the data from the old table to the new table...
The GUI I've landed on to do SQLite operations is Base. It's got a nifty Log window that shows all the commands that have been executed. Doing a rename of a column via Base populates the log window with the necessary commands:
These can then be easily copied and pasted where you might need them. For me, that's into an ActiveAndroid migration file. A nice touch, as well, is that the copied data only includes the SQLite commands, not the timestamps, etc.
Hopefully, that saves some people time.

change table column < id > to < _id >
String LastId = "id";
database.execSQL("ALTER TABLE " + PhraseContract.TABLE_NAME + " RENAME TO " + PhraseContract.TABLE_NAME + "old");
database.execSQL("CREATE TABLE " + PhraseContract.TABLE_NAME
+"("
+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_ID + " INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,"
+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_PHRASE + " text ,"
+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_ORDER + " text ,"
+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_FROM_A_LANG + " text"
+")"
);
database.execSQL("INSERT INTO " +
PhraseContract.TABLE_NAME + "("+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_ID +" , "+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_PHRASE + " , "+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_ORDER +" , "+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_FROM_A_LANG +")" +
" SELECT " + LastId +" , "+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_PHRASE + " , "+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_ORDER +" , "+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_FROM_A_LANG +
" FROM " + PhraseContract.TABLE_NAME + "old");
database.execSQL("DROP TABLE " + PhraseContract.TABLE_NAME + "old");

Create a new column with the desired column name: COLNew.
ALTER TABLE {tableName} ADD COLUMN COLNew {type};
Copy contents of old column COLOld to new column COLNew.
INSERT INTO {tableName} (COLNew) SELECT {COLOld} FROM {tableName}
Note: brackets are necessary in above line.

As mentioned before, there is a tool SQLite Database Browser, which does this. Lyckily, this tool keeps a log of all operations performed by the user or the application. Doing this once and looking at the application log, you will see the code involved. Copy the query and paste as required. Worked for me. Hope this helps

From the official documentation
A simpler and faster procedure can optionally be used for some changes that do no affect the on-disk content in any way. The following simpler procedure is appropriate for removing CHECK or FOREIGN KEY or NOT NULL constraints, renaming columns, or adding or removing or changing default values on a column.
Start a transaction.
Run PRAGMA schema_version to determine the current schema version number. This number will be needed for step 6 below.
Activate schema editing using PRAGMA writable_schema=ON.
Run an UPDATE statement to change the definition of table X in the sqlite_master table: UPDATE sqlite_master SET sql=... WHERE type='table' AND name='X';
Caution: Making a change to the sqlite_master table like this will render the database corrupt and unreadable if the change contains a syntax error. It is suggested that careful testing of the UPDATE statement be done on a separate blank database prior to using it on a database containing important data.
If the change to table X also affects other tables or indexes or triggers are views within schema, then run UPDATE statements to modify those other tables indexes and views too. For example, if the name of a column changes, all FOREIGN KEY constraints, triggers, indexes, and views that refer to that column must be modified.
Caution: Once again, making changes to the sqlite_master table like this will render the database corrupt and unreadable if the change contains an error. Carefully test of this entire procedure on a separate test database prior to using it on a database containing important data and/or make backup copies of important databases prior to running this procedure.
Increment the schema version number using PRAGMA schema_version=X where X is one more than the old schema version number found in step 2 above.
Disable schema editing using PRAGMA writable_schema=OFF.
(Optional) Run PRAGMA integrity_check to verify that the schema changes did not damage the database.
Commit the transaction started on step 1 above.

One option, if you need it done in a pinch, and if your initial column was created with a default, is to create the new column you want, copy the contents over to it, and basically "abandon" the old column (it stays present, but you just don't use/update it, etc.)
ex:
alter table TABLE_NAME ADD COLUMN new_column_name TYPE NOT NULL DEFAULT '';
update TABLE_NAME set new_column_name = old_column_name;
update TABLE_NAME set old_column_name = ''; -- abandon old column, basically
This leaves behind a column (and if it was created with NOT NULL but without a default, then future inserts that ignore it might fail), but if it's just a throwaway table, the tradeoffs might be acceptable. Otherwise use one of the other answers mentioned here, or a different database that allows columns to be renamed.

need to rename a few columns in some tables
Another way is to use multiple SQLite3 commands to "rename" a column,
in "some" tables, repeat as needed:
.output tmp
SELECT "ALTER TABLE """|| sqlite_master.name ||""" RENAME COLUMN old_name TO new_name;" FROM sqlite_master
WHERE type = "table" AND sqlite_master.name NOT LIKE 'sqlite_%';
.read tmp
source

Since version 2018-09-15 (3.25.0)
sqlite supports renaming columns
https://sqlite.org/changes.html

sqlite3 yourdb .dump > /tmp/db.txt
edit /tmp/db.txt change column name in Create line
sqlite2 yourdb2 < /tmp/db.txt
mv/move yourdb2 yourdb

Insert into table access 2010

How can i copy contents of my whole table in sql access and update one column to the same table.
So basically is selecting the whole table and updating one column and pasting that to the same table. thanks.

To clone an existing table back into the same table, but using a different value for one field, use something like the following (see notes that follow!):
INSERT INTO Table1 ( FldA, FldB, MyDate, StateCode )
SELECT Table1.FldA, Table1.FldB, Table1.MyDate, "FL" AS Expr1
FROM Table1;
You can't easily use the * to select/update all fields because your need to change one field would result in a "duplicate destination" error. If needed, you could use an 'IF' statement to change to different values (i.e. IF(FldA="VA","FL",IF(FldA="MD","TX",Flda))

SQLite Temp Table in Navicat

I use Navicat and this command to create temp table in sqlite:
create temp table search as select * from documents
Then when i try to query:
select * from search
I got:
no such table: temp.sqlite_master
or:
no such table
The table doesn't appear in table list too, but when I try to create it again I get:
table search already exists
What is the problem? is it from navicat?

You create statement looks correct to me. When you create a temp table it is deleted when you close the connection string used to create the table. Are you closing the connection after you create the table and then opening it again when you are sending the query?
If not, can you include your query statement too?

It's like a bug in SQLite DLL shipped with Navicat. Test it somewhere else worked ok.

Documentation of SQLite tells this about CREATE TABLE:
If a is specified, it must be either "main", "temp",
or the name of an attached database. In this case the new table is
created in the named database. If the "TEMP" or "TEMPORARY" keyword
occurs between the "CREATE" and "TABLE" then the new table is created
in the temp database. It is an error to specify both a
and the TEMP or TEMPORARY keyword, unless the is
"temp". If no database name is specified and the TEMP keyword is not
present then the table is created in the main database.
May be you should accesse table via temp prefix like this: temp.search.

Modify a Column's Type in sqlite3

I'm pretty new to SQLite 3 and just now I had to add a column to an existing table I had. I went about doing that by doing: ALTER TABLE thetable ADD COLUMN category;.
Of course, I forgot to specify that column's type. The first thing I was thinking about doing was dropping that column and then re-adding it. However, it seems that SQLite does not have a simple way of doing this, and I would have had to backup the table and re-create it without the column.
This seems messy, and I was wondering if there were just a way of modifying/adding a column's type. I would imagine so, but my searching around yielded no results, being new to SQLite, I imagine it was due to my wording being off in the query.

SQLite doesn't support removing or modifying columns, apparently. But do remember that column data types aren't rigid in SQLite, either.
See also:
SQLite Modify Column

If you prefer a GUI, DB Browser for SQLite will do this with a few clicks.
"File" - "Open Database"
In the "Database Structure" tab, click on the table content (not table name), then "Edit" menu, "Modify table", and now you can change the data type of any column with a drop down menu. I changed a 'text' field to 'numeric' in order to retrieve data in a number range.
DB Browser for SQLite is open source and free. For Linux it is available from the repository.

There is a much simpler way:
ALTER TABLE your_main_table
ADD COLUMN new_column_name new_column_data_type
UPDATE your_main_table
SET new_column_name = CAST(old_column_name as new_data_type_you_want)
I tried this on my machine locally and it works

It is possible by recreating table.Its work for me please follow following step:
create temporary table using as select * from your table
drop your table, create your table using modify column type
now insert records from temp table to your newly created table
drop temporary table
do all above steps in worker thread to reduce load on uithread

It is possible by dumping, editing and reimporting the table.
This script will do it for you (Adapt the values at the start of the script to your needs):
#!/bin/bash
DB=/tmp/synapse/homeserver.db
TABLE="public_room_list_stream"
FIELD=visibility
OLD="BOOLEAN NOT NULL"
NEW="INTEGER NOT NULL"
TMP=/tmp/sqlite_$TABLE.sql
echo "### create dump"
echo ".dump '$TABLE'" | sqlite3 "$DB" >$TMP
echo "### editing the create statement"
sed -i "s|$FIELD $OLD|$FIELD $NEW|g" $TMP
read -rsp $'Press any key to continue deleting and recreating the table $TABLE ...\n' -n1 key
echo "### rename the original to '$TABLE"_backup"'"
sqlite3 "$DB" "PRAGMA busy_timeout=20000; ALTER TABLE '$TABLE' RENAME TO '$TABLE"_backup"'"
echo "### delete the old indexes"
for idx in $(echo "SELECT name FROM sqlite_master WHERE type == 'index' AND tbl_name LIKE '$TABLE""%';" | sqlite3 $DB); do
echo "DROP INDEX '$idx';" | sqlite3 $DB
done
echo "### reinserting the edited table"
cat $TMP | sqlite3 $DB

How do I rename a column in a SQLite database table?

I would need to rename a few columns in some tables in a SQLite database.
I know that a similar question has been asked on stackoverflow previously, but it was for SQL in general, and the case of SQLite was not mentioned.
From the SQLite documentation for ALTER TABLE, I gather that it's not possible to do such a thing "easily" (i.e. a single ALTER TABLE statement).
I was wondering someone knew of a generic SQL way of doing such a thing with SQLite.

Note that as of version 3.25.0 released September 2018 you can now use ALTER TABLE to rename a column.
Example to rename Really Bad : Column Name to BetterColumnName:
ALTER TABLE your_table
RENAME COLUMN "Really Bad : Column Name" TO BetterColumnName
According to keywords the use of "double-quotes" is the standard way
Original "create new and drop old table" answer below.
Say you have a table and need to rename "colb" to "col_b":
First create the new table with a temporary name, based on the old table definition but with the updated column name:
CREATE TABLE tmp_table_name (
col_a INT
, col_b INT
);
Then copy the contents across from the original table.
INSERT INTO tmp_table_name(col_a, col_b)
SELECT col_a, colb
FROM orig_table_name;
Drop the old table.
DROP TABLE orig_table_name;
Last you rename the temporary table table to the original:
ALTER TABLE tmp_table_name RENAME TO orig_table_name;
Don't forget to re-create indexes, triggers, etc. The documentation gives a fuller picture of the gotchas and caveats.
Wrapping all this in a BEGIN TRANSACTION; and COMMIT; is also probably a good idea.

This was just fixed with 2018-09-15 (3.25.0)
Enhancements the ALTER TABLE command:
Add support for renaming columns within a table using ALTER TABLE table RENAME COLUMN oldname TO newname.
Fix table rename feature so that it also updates references to the renamed table in triggers and views.
You can find the new syntax documented under ALTER TABLE
The RENAME COLUMN TO syntax changes the column-name of table table-name into new-column-name. The column name is changed both within the table definition itself and also within all indexes, triggers, and views that reference the column. If the column name change would result in a semantic ambiguity in a trigger or view, then the RENAME COLUMN fails with an error and no changes are applied.
Image source: https://www.sqlite.org/images/syntax/alter-table-stmt.gif
Example:
CREATE TABLE tab AS SELECT 1 AS c;
SELECT * FROM tab;
ALTER TABLE tab RENAME COLUMN c to c_new;
SELECT * FROM tab;
db-fiddle.com demo
Android Support
As of writing, Android's API 27 is using SQLite package version 3.19.
Based on the current version that Android is using and that this update is coming in version 3.25.0 of SQLite, I would say you have bit of a wait (approximately API 33) before support for this is added to Android.
And, even then, if you need to support any versions older than the API 33, you will not be able to use this.

Digging around, I found this multiplatform (Linux | Mac | Windows) graphical tool called DB Browser for SQLite that actually allows one to rename columns in a very user friendly way!
Edit | Modify Table | Select Table | Edit Field. Click click! Voila!
However, if someone want to share a programmatic way of doing this, I'd be happy to know!

While it is true that there is no ALTER COLUMN, if you only want to rename the column, drop the NOT NULL constraint, or change the data type, you can use the following set of commands:
Note: These commands have the potential to corrupt your database, so make sure you have a backup
PRAGMA writable_schema = 1;
UPDATE SQLITE_MASTER SET SQL = 'CREATE TABLE BOOKS ( title TEXT NOT NULL, publication_date TEXT)' WHERE NAME = 'BOOKS';
PRAGMA writable_schema = 0;
You will need to either close and reopen your connection or vacuum the database to reload the changes into the schema.
For example:
Y:\> sqlite3 booktest
SQLite version 3.7.4
Enter ".help" for instructions
Enter SQL statements terminated with a ";"
sqlite> create table BOOKS ( title TEXT NOT NULL, publication_date TEXT NOT NULL);
sqlite> insert into BOOKS VALUES ("NULLTEST",null);
Error: BOOKS.publication_date may not be NULL
sqlite> PRAGMA writable_schema = 1;
sqlite> UPDATE SQLITE_MASTER SET SQL = 'CREATE TABLE BOOKS ( title TEXT NOT NULL, publication_date TEXT)' WHERE NAME = 'BOOKS';
sqlite> PRAGMA writable_schema = 0;
sqlite> .q
Y:\> sqlite3 booktest
SQLite version 3.7.4
Enter ".help" for instructions
Enter SQL statements terminated with a ";"
sqlite> insert into BOOKS VALUES ("NULLTEST",null);
sqlite> .q
REFERENCES FOLLOW:
pragma writable_schema
When this pragma is on, the SQLITE_MASTER tables in which database can be changed using ordinary UPDATE, INSERT, and DELETE statements. Warning: misuse of this pragma can easily result in a corrupt database file.
alter table
SQLite supports a limited subset of ALTER TABLE. The ALTER TABLE command in SQLite allows the user to rename a table or to add a new column to an existing table. It is not possible to rename a column, remove a column, or add or remove constraints from a table.

Recently I had to do that in SQLite3 with a table named points with the colunms id, lon, lat. Erroneusly, when the table was imported, the values for latitude where stored in the lon column and viceversa, so an obvious fix would be to rename those columns. So the trick was:
create table points_tmp as select id, lon as lat, lat as lon from points;
drop table points;
alter table points_tmp rename to points;
I hope this would be useful for you!

CASE 1 : SQLite 3.25.0+
Only the Version 3.25.0 of SQLite supports renaming columns. If your device is meeting this requirement, things are quite simple. The below query would solve your problem:
ALTER TABLE "MyTable" RENAME COLUMN "OldColumn" TO "NewColumn";
CASE 2 : SQLite Older Versions
You have to follow a different Approach to get the result which might be a little tricky
For example, if you have a table like this:
CREATE TABLE student(Name TEXT, Department TEXT, Location TEXT)
And if you wish to change the name of the column Location
Step 1: Rename the original table:
ALTER TABLE student RENAME TO student_temp;
Step 2: Now create a new table student with correct column name:
CREATE TABLE student(Name TEXT, Department TEXT, Address TEXT)
Step 3: Copy the data from the original table to the new table:
INSERT INTO student(Name, Department, Address) SELECT Name, Department, Location FROM student_temp;
Note: The above command should be all one line.
Step 4: Drop the original table:
DROP TABLE student_temp;
With these four steps you can manually change any SQLite table.
Keep in mind that you will also need to recreate any indexes, viewers or triggers on the new table as well.

Quoting the sqlite documentation:
SQLite supports a limited subset of
ALTER TABLE. The ALTER TABLE command
in SQLite allows the user to rename a
table or to add a new column to an
existing table. It is not possible to rename a colum, remove a column, or add or remove constraints from a table.
What you can do of course is, create a new table with the new layout, SELECT * FROM old_table, and fill the new table with the values you'll receive.

First off, this is one of those things that slaps me in the face with surprise: renaming of a column requires creating an entirely new table and copying the data from the old table to the new table...
The GUI I've landed on to do SQLite operations is Base. It's got a nifty Log window that shows all the commands that have been executed. Doing a rename of a column via Base populates the log window with the necessary commands:
These can then be easily copied and pasted where you might need them. For me, that's into an ActiveAndroid migration file. A nice touch, as well, is that the copied data only includes the SQLite commands, not the timestamps, etc.
Hopefully, that saves some people time.

change table column < id > to < _id >
String LastId = "id";
database.execSQL("ALTER TABLE " + PhraseContract.TABLE_NAME + " RENAME TO " + PhraseContract.TABLE_NAME + "old");
database.execSQL("CREATE TABLE " + PhraseContract.TABLE_NAME
+"("
+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_ID + " INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,"
+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_PHRASE + " text ,"
+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_ORDER + " text ,"
+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_FROM_A_LANG + " text"
+")"
);
database.execSQL("INSERT INTO " +
PhraseContract.TABLE_NAME + "("+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_ID +" , "+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_PHRASE + " , "+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_ORDER +" , "+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_FROM_A_LANG +")" +
" SELECT " + LastId +" , "+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_PHRASE + " , "+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_ORDER +" , "+ PhraseContract.COLUMN_FROM_A_LANG +
" FROM " + PhraseContract.TABLE_NAME + "old");
database.execSQL("DROP TABLE " + PhraseContract.TABLE_NAME + "old");

Create a new column with the desired column name: COLNew.
ALTER TABLE {tableName} ADD COLUMN COLNew {type};
Copy contents of old column COLOld to new column COLNew.
INSERT INTO {tableName} (COLNew) SELECT {COLOld} FROM {tableName}
Note: brackets are necessary in above line.

As mentioned before, there is a tool SQLite Database Browser, which does this. Lyckily, this tool keeps a log of all operations performed by the user or the application. Doing this once and looking at the application log, you will see the code involved. Copy the query and paste as required. Worked for me. Hope this helps

From the official documentation
A simpler and faster procedure can optionally be used for some changes that do no affect the on-disk content in any way. The following simpler procedure is appropriate for removing CHECK or FOREIGN KEY or NOT NULL constraints, renaming columns, or adding or removing or changing default values on a column.
Start a transaction.
Run PRAGMA schema_version to determine the current schema version number. This number will be needed for step 6 below.
Activate schema editing using PRAGMA writable_schema=ON.
Run an UPDATE statement to change the definition of table X in the sqlite_master table: UPDATE sqlite_master SET sql=... WHERE type='table' AND name='X';
Caution: Making a change to the sqlite_master table like this will render the database corrupt and unreadable if the change contains a syntax error. It is suggested that careful testing of the UPDATE statement be done on a separate blank database prior to using it on a database containing important data.
If the change to table X also affects other tables or indexes or triggers are views within schema, then run UPDATE statements to modify those other tables indexes and views too. For example, if the name of a column changes, all FOREIGN KEY constraints, triggers, indexes, and views that refer to that column must be modified.
Caution: Once again, making changes to the sqlite_master table like this will render the database corrupt and unreadable if the change contains an error. Carefully test of this entire procedure on a separate test database prior to using it on a database containing important data and/or make backup copies of important databases prior to running this procedure.
Increment the schema version number using PRAGMA schema_version=X where X is one more than the old schema version number found in step 2 above.
Disable schema editing using PRAGMA writable_schema=OFF.
(Optional) Run PRAGMA integrity_check to verify that the schema changes did not damage the database.
Commit the transaction started on step 1 above.

One option, if you need it done in a pinch, and if your initial column was created with a default, is to create the new column you want, copy the contents over to it, and basically "abandon" the old column (it stays present, but you just don't use/update it, etc.)
ex:
alter table TABLE_NAME ADD COLUMN new_column_name TYPE NOT NULL DEFAULT '';
update TABLE_NAME set new_column_name = old_column_name;
update TABLE_NAME set old_column_name = ''; -- abandon old column, basically
This leaves behind a column (and if it was created with NOT NULL but without a default, then future inserts that ignore it might fail), but if it's just a throwaway table, the tradeoffs might be acceptable. Otherwise use one of the other answers mentioned here, or a different database that allows columns to be renamed.

need to rename a few columns in some tables
Another way is to use multiple SQLite3 commands to "rename" a column,
in "some" tables, repeat as needed:
.output tmp
SELECT "ALTER TABLE """|| sqlite_master.name ||""" RENAME COLUMN old_name TO new_name;" FROM sqlite_master
WHERE type = "table" AND sqlite_master.name NOT LIKE 'sqlite_%';
.read tmp
source

Since version 2018-09-15 (3.25.0)
sqlite supports renaming columns
https://sqlite.org/changes.html

sqlite3 yourdb .dump > /tmp/db.txt
edit /tmp/db.txt change column name in Create line
sqlite2 yourdb2 < /tmp/db.txt
mv/move yourdb2 yourdb

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