This is only true if you don't use strict tables (implemented end of 2021): https://www.sqlite.org/stricttables.html
If you define a table as strict, the data is coerced, and if not successful an error is thrown.
Coercing the data is hardly better. Now you have data integrity issues and you have no errors!
Seriously? And there I was thinking they actually fixed this mistake... they just made another schoolboy error.
This can be fixed in the connection string.
> column types are not checked
Now available, the STRICT keyword.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28259104
It’s also only two years old which is forever in the web world and brand new by Databases ops/maturity standards. There are likely still warts waiting to be discovered (there always are, but the discovery rate tapers over decades).
Not a solid guarantee. More prone to bugs, errors, etc. What is someone changes something using the comnandline client and forgets to issue the pragma command?
I would feel a lot happier using SQLite if this was a per DB setting rather than a per connection one.
How so? Are you saying that sqlite would ignore the connection string?
Judging by the documentation, if you issue a PRAGMA foreign_keys; and no row is returned containing a 0 or 1, then you are using an unsupported version of SQLite, or the library was compiled with foreign key support disabled. I am struggling to find any documentation that states if anything will occur if enabling foreign keys in the connection string, when the version does not support foreign keys.
Worth mentioning that numeric in Sqlite is still just a float.[0] A table of two rows where column a is 0.1 and 0.2, respectively, sum(a) will not yield 0.3.
These are all backed by integer data storage and arithmetic, but the database handles scaling the values for you, to whatever number of decimal places you have configured. SQL Server and Postgres MONEY type will additionally format values with a currency symbol, when converted to a character string.
In SQLite you're out of luck - if you want accounting values you'll have to store them as integers and scale the values yourself.
Source: I work on a mobile app with offline storage of pricing and weighed quantities, using SQLite in the app, and SQL Server on the back end.
I still wouldn't use floats/numerics/decimals to store currency either in any db generally, as said by others you're going to end up with inaccurate numbers [2].
Therefore using integers is in fact very good for this use-case, especially if you are in accounting or book-keeping!
Source: I work for a Fintech company that processes millions of payments.
[1] https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Don%27t_Do_This#Don.27t_use... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZRI1IfStY0
If you add 0.1 to 1000000 with an integer representation scaled by 10^6 then you are still boned.
Binary floats may actually produce a better result here.
What you really want is a decimal floating point type with a suitable amount of significant digit precision.
> sqlite3 --interactive ./floats.db
SQLite version 3.37.2 2022-01-06 13:25:41
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
sqlite> create table floats(colA number);
sqlite> insert into floats(colA) values (0.1);
sqlite> insert into floats(colA) values (0.2);
sqlite> select sum(colA) from floats;
0.3
sqlite> create table floats2(colA numeric);
sqlite> insert into floats2(colA) values (0.1);
sqlite> insert into floats2(colA) values (0.2);
sqlite> select sum(colA) from floats2;
0.3
sqlite>SQLite is super versatile, but very different from other more traditional RDMBS.
The natively supported statements are as easy to perform as in MySQL or Postgres, for example.
> "The only schema altering commands directly supported by SQLite are the 'rename table', 'rename column', 'add column', 'drop column' commands shown above. However, applications can make other arbitrary changes to the format of a table using a simple sequence of operations.
https://sqlite-utils.datasette.io/en/stable/python-api.html#...
https://sqlite-utils.datasette.io/en/stable/cli-reference.ht...
> Also it doesn't allow you to use multiple application servers.
Not in the same way you use postgres etc, but you can do it with sharding or with LiteFS, but you do have to consider carefully how you scale your app.
I'm not _really_ disagreeing with you, but I think you're painting with a bit too broad of a brush.
If modifying the column's type, yes. But you don't if you're just renaming, adding, or dropping a column.
> column types are not checked and you can easily insert a string into numeric column.
Can be fixed with CHECK constraints in the table definitions.
> Also it doesn't allow you to use multiple application servers.
This is mentioned in OP.
> So it can be used only with small, simple sites.
It can be used in a large variety of applications, but it's more appropriate for some than for others.
Also, column types are not checked and you can easily insert a string into numeric column.
Also it doesn't allow you to use multiple application servers.
So it can be used only with small, simple sites.
[1] https://www.sqlite.org/lang_altertable.html