What is SQLite?
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What is SQLite?

Authors
  1. Light Weight – It is a lightweight file-based database, i.e. the entire database is stored in a single file.
  2. C Language – Library is written in C language & that library is ported to other languages, like C#, Python, etc.
  3. Most Popular – It is the most used database engine in the world, with over 1 trillion (1e12) SQLite databases in active use.
  4. Creator – D. Richard Hipp is the man who designed SQLite in the spring of 2000.
  5. SQL Support – It supports most of the standard SQL features but has few limitations like limited ALTER TABLE function, i.e. as it cannot modify or delete columns.
  6. Quirks – It uses an unusual type system for an SQL-compatible DBMS, the columns are weakly typed, i.e. a string can be inserted into an integer column.
  7. Use Cases
    1. It is used as a cache many times as constant queries to SQL server machines would be slow.
    2. It can be used for desktop/embedded applications
    3. For Websites with moderate traffic
    4. Internal / temporary database
  8. Situations where SQL Server like databases work better
    1. Client/Server Applications
    2. High-Volume Websites
    3. Huge databases
    4. High Concurrency

Features of SQLite

  1. Zero-Configuration – No configuration files are required to work with it. There is no need for an administrator to create a new database instance. It just works.
  2. Serverless – Most SQL systems require a separate process, SQLite can be operated by your program directly, so no installation/server/machine is required.
  3. Single Database File – Entire database is stored in a single file. That file can range from a few KBs to GBs, so make sure your file system supports it.
  4. Stable Cross-Platform Database File – A database file written on one machine can be copied to and used on a different machine with a different architecture like Mac/Windows/Linux etc.
  5. Compact – SQLite is a compact library that is less than 500 KB.
  6. Flexible Manifest typing – string can be stored in an integer column if you so need it.
  7. Variable-length records – In many databases, if we define a string column of fixed length 100 then the database allocates fixed space, but SQLite can have variable length records, thereby reducing space wherever it’s not required.
  8. Open-source – The SQLite source code is available for download. Download from the link provided below, Also you can use SQLite for Open source/Commercial purposes.