can't execute '.read create.sql'

Question

This might be an obvious error but I'm trying to create a database within python from a script I've already created.

conn = sqlite3.connect('testDB')
c = conn.cursor()
c.execute('.read create.sql')

This gives an error "sqlite3.OperationalError: near ".": syntax error"

If I do the same thing at the sqlite3 cmd line it works fine

[me@myPC ~]$ sqlite3 testDB
SQLite version 3.3.6
Enter ".help" for instructions
sqlite> .read create.sql 
sqlite>

It seems that any commands that start with a . give me problems.

Roger Binns · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-14 08:08:41Z

3

just pass the content of the file to the .execute method:

conn = sqlite3.connect('testDB')
c = conn.cursor()
SQL = open('create.sql').read()
c.executescript(SQL)

Roger Binns

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answered Sep 9, 2011 at 20:50

fabmilo

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Comments

glglgl · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-09 17:37:19Z

2

I would suppose that commands starting with . are for the CLI client itself, not for the backend.

So you have no chance to do so and would have to do file reading and executing the queries by yourself, i.e. in Python.

answered Sep 9, 2011 at 17:37

glglgl

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