All I know is only table name, and id value on which I want to perform query, but I do not know what is id called in that table.
You can probably lookup the column name for the primary key column(s) using the answer to a quite similar question..
sqlite> pragma table_info(...)
It should also work programmatically, if needed.
Related
I needed to delete a column from a table that other tables had a foreign constraint on. I guess ALTER TABLE doesn't let you remove columns, so I had to create a new table without the column and copy the data over and rename them appropriately. Though now it won't let me delete the old table with the extra column because of foreign table constraints still I guess pointing to the old table instead of the new one... even though the new one now has the correct name. What is the recommended practice for making the foreign keys point to the right table now that I did the switch?
I don't think that you can. You might have to recreate all the other tables with the updated foreign key, because you cannot change foreign key constraint conditions or at least as far as I know.
I've created a SQLite table using:
CREATE TABLE T1 (
CN INTEGER PRIMARY KEY ASC,
Name TEXT
);
If I do:
SELECT * FROM T1
Will I get the rows order by CN even without specifying a ORDER BY clause?
Is CN an alias to ROWID?
There is no such thing as a default order, if you need your results ordered add an explicit order by clause.
The dbms is simply optimised to look for the best way to quickly get the required data based on the query. In this case it's the primary key on CN, but that's only because your example is so simple. Never ever rely on the dbms choosing the order you want.
The second question might be useful to others.
From the SQLite documentation:
Except for WITHOUT ROWID tables, all rows within SQLite tables have a 64-bit signed integer key that uniquely identifies the row within its table. This integer is usually called the "rowid".
... if a rowid table has a primary key that consists of a single column and the declared type of that column is "INTEGER" in any mixture of upper and lower case, then the column becomes an alias for the rowid.
This also holds for columns that are declared of type "INTEGER PRIMARY KEY ASC", so in your table CN is an alias for "rowid"
Further information can be found here:
http://www.sqlite.org/lang_createtable.html#rowid
I have an SQLite table that I need to sort. I am familiar with the ORDER BY command but this is not what I am trying to accomplish. I need the entire table sorted within the database.
Explanation:
My table uses a column called rowed which sets the order of the table (a key?). I need to sort the table by another column called name and then re-assign rowid numbers in alphabetical order according to name. Can this be done?
Assuming you created your original table like so:
CREATE TABLE my_table (rowid INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT, somedata TEXT) ;
You can create another sorted table like so:
CREATE TABLE my_ordered_table (rowid INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT, somedata TEXT) ;
INSERT INTO my_ordered_table (name, somedata) SELECT name,somedata FROM my_table
ORDER BY name ;
And if you then want to replace the original table:
DROP TABLE my_table ;
ALTER TABLE my_ordered_table RENAME TO my_table;
I think this issue relates to wanting the primary key to mean something. Avoid that trap. Choose an arbitrarily generated primary key that uniquely identifies a row of data and has no other meaning. Otherwise you will eventually run into the problem of wanting to alter the primary key values to preserve the meaning.
For a good explanation of why you should rely on ORDER BY to retrieve the data in the desired order instead of assuming the data will otherwise appear in a sequence determined by the primary key see Cruachan's answer to a similar question
I tried INSERT OR REPLACE INTO, but it doesn't preserve the row id when it replaces the record to update it. Another option is do it in two steps: INSERT OR IGNORE INTO then UPDATE, but I would prefer a one step solution. So I am wondering if SQLite has something like the MERGE keyword or other simple solutions?
No, SQLite doesn't support MERGE or upsert.
You can use your two-step solution, but what you probably really want is for the ROWID to be a first-class column in your table. If you declare a column as INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, it will be an alias for the ROWID. Then INSERT OR REPLACE will work fine.
I have a sqlite table that was originally created with:
PRIMARY KEY (`column`);
I now need to remove that primary key and create a new one. Creating a new one is easy, but removing the original seems to be the hard part. If I do
.indices tablename
I don't get the primary key. Some programs show the primary key as
Indexes: 1
[] PRIMARY
The index name is typically in the [].
Any ideas?
You can't.
PRAGMA INDEX_LIST('MyTable');
will give you a list of indices. This will include the automatically generated index for the primary key which will be called something like 'sqlite_autoindex_MyTable_1'.
But unfortunately you cannot drop this index...
sqlite> drop index sqlite_autoindex_MyTable_1;
SQL error: index associated with UNIQUE or PRIMARY KEY constraint cannot be dropped
All you can do is re-create the table without the primary key.
I the database glossary; a primary-key is a type of index where the index order is typically results in the physical ordering of the raw database records. That said any database engine that allows the primary key to be changed is likely reordering the database... so most do not and the operation is up to the programmer to create a script to rename the table and create a new one. So if you want to change the PK there is no magic SQL.
select * from sqlite_master;
table|x|x|2|CREATE TABLE x (a text, b text, primary key (`a`))
index|sqlite_autoindex_x_1|x|3|
You'll see that the second row returned from my quick hack has the index name in the second column, and the table name in the third. Try seeing if that name is anything useful.