How to add a new column in a View in sqlite? - sqlite

Question

I have this database in sqlite (table1):
+-----+-------+-------+
| _id | name | level |
+-----+-------+-------+
| 1 | Mike | 3 |
| 2 | John | 2 |
| 3 | Bob | 2 |
| 4 | David | 1 |
| 5 | Tom | 2 |
+-----+-------+-------+
I want to create a view with all elements of level 2 and then to add a new column indicating the order of the row in the new table. That is, I would want this result:
+-------+------+
| index | name |
+-------+------+
| 1 | John |
| 2 | Bob |
| 3 | Tom |
+-------+------+
I have tried:
CREATE VIEW words AS SELECT _id as index, name FROM table1;
But then I get:
+-------+------+
| index | name |
+-------+------+
| 2 | John |
| 3 | Bob |
| 5 | Tom |
+-------+------+
I suppose it should be something as:
CREATE VIEW words AS SELECT XXXX as index, name FROM table 1;
What should I use instead of XXXX?

Answer 1

When ordered by _id, the number of rows up to and including this one is the same as the number of rows where the _id value is less than or equal to this row's _id:
CREATE VIEW words AS
SELECT (SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM table1 b
WHERE level = 2
AND b._id <= a._id) AS "index",
name
FROM table1 a
WHERE level = 2;
(The computation itself does not actually require ORDER BY _id because the order of the rows does not matter when we're just counting them.)
Please note that words is not guaranteed to be sorted; add ORDER BY "index" if needed.
And this is, of course, not very efficient.

Answer 2

You have two options. First, you could simply add a new column with the following:
ALTER TABLE {tableName} ADD COLUMN COLNew {type};
Second, and more complicatedly, but would actually put the column where you want it, would be to rename the table:
ALTER TABLE {tableName} RENAME TO TempOldTable;
Then create the new table with the missing column:
CREATE TABLE {tableName} (name TEXT, COLNew {type} DEFAULT {defaultValue}, qty INTEGER, rate REAL);
And populate it with the old data:
INSERT INTO {tableName} (name, qty, rate) SELECT name, qty, rate FROM TempOldTable;
Then delete the old table:
DROP TABLE TempOldTable;
I'd much prefer the second option, as it will allow you to completely rename everything if need be.