SQLite Installation Tutorial

SQLite is a small, fast, self-contained, and reliable SQL database engine. It’s commonly used in small applications as well as mobile applications due to how easy it is to use and how self-contained it is. In this course, we will be using SQLite for some exercises / assignments

Windows Installation Instructions

SQLite is kind of a pain to get working on Windows (as is most development technologies). I would personally highly recommend you use a more robust UNIX-based development environment such as Linux or Mac OS as it will save you a lot of headaches in the long run.

Firstly, go to the download page on the SQLite website

For the command-line shell program, download the file shown below or cilck here

• Do not download any of the other options. They do not have the actual program (are only DLL files)

Save the download somewhere convenient and unzip the file and run the file sqlite3.exe to run SQLite

Running SQLite through the physical file is rather cumbersome and you may want to add it as a command line program. To do so:

1. Create a new folder in your C:\ drive (e.g. C:\sqlite)
2. Extract the contents of the zip file you downloaded into C:\sqlite
   • If you’ve done this correctly, you should see that sqlite3.exe is in C:sqlite

Generally, Windows will not recognize that you’ve added the file and you will be required to add SQLite as a PATH environment varaible

1. Go to Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings > Environment Variables
2. Dobule click the Path item from User variables
3. Click on New on the right hand side
4. Add the path C:\sqlite
5. Save it

At this point, you should be able to run SQLite from Command Prompt using the command sqlite3. To run a database file, run the command sqlite3 <database> where <database> is the name of your database file

Linux / Mac Installation Instructions

SQLite comes installed by default on Mac. If for some reason you don’t have it installed, you can install it in one of two ways:

If you have homebrew installed, run the folloiwng command:

brew install sqlite3

If you do not have homebrew, you can install it from source:

1. Download sqlite-autoconf-*.tar.gz under the Source Code section of the SQLite website under the Download section
2. In the Terminal app, run the following commands

   cd ~/Downloads      # cd to wherever you saved the tar file
   tar xvfz sqlite-autoconf-3240000.tar.gz
   cd sqlite-autoconf-3240000
   ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
   make
   make install
   

SQLite also comes installed by default on Linux. It is also available on all the lab computers. If you’re running a Linux machine and you don’t have SQLite installed for some reason, you can install it using the same steps as above

SQLite Browser

SQLite Browser is a graphical user interface to create, design, and edit database files that are compatible with SQLite. It is NOT a visual shell for the command-line tool and is NOT a replacement for the command-line tool. The browser makes it easier to visualize operations on large tables however it should not be used as an alternative to the actual program. Becoming overly reliant on using the browser is a crutch and will make you worse at writing and coming up with queries yourself.

The installation for SQLite browser is relatively straightforward from the website. You do not need the actual SQLite program to run the browser