Using SQLite

API Overview

Even when using the programming interface, the primary way of interacting with your data is to issue SQL commands to the database engine. This chapter focuses on the core of the API that is used to convey SQL command strings to the database engine. It is important to understand that there are no public functions to walk the internal structure of a table or, for example, access the tree structure of an index. You must use SQL to query data from the database. In order to be successful with the SQLite API, you not only need to understand the C API, but you also need to know enough SQL to form meaningful and efficient queries.

Structure

The C API for SQLite 3 includes a dozen-plus data structures, a fair number of constants, and well over one hundred different function calls. While the API is somewhat large, using it doesn’t have to be complex. A fair number of the functions are highly specialized and infrequently used by most developers. Many of the remaining functions are simple variations of the same basic operation. For example, there are a dozen variations on the sqlite3_value_xxx() function, such as sqlite3_value_int(), sqlite3_value_double(), and sqlite3_value_text(). All of these functions perform the same basic operation and can be considered simple type variations of the same basic interface.

Note

When referring to a whole category of functions, either in text or in pseudo code, I’ll simply refer to them as the sqlite3_value_xxx() functions. Much of the SQLite documentation ...