Introduction
Several users of this website have asked me to publish a brief introduction to the use of the Structured Query Language (SQL).
As most readers know, SQL is still the most widely used language for handling data stored in Relational DataBase Management Systems (RDBMS). SQL is an “old” language. The language dates back to the 1970s. Today, however, the language is still very much alive. It is still the language used in major server-based database systems such as Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server , PostgreSQL , etc. to manage stored data.
For this series of lessons, it is not necessary to install a server-based database system. The complexity of installing a server and running the database server software on it is disproportionate to the purpose of these lessons.
For this series of lessons, we have chosen a file-based database system called SQLite.The first sentences on the official SQLite website provide a good description of the power of this simple database environment:
SQLite is a C-language library that implements a small, fast, self-contained, high-reliability, full-featured, SQL database engine. SQLite is the most used database engine in the world. SQLite is built into all mobile phones and most computers and comes bundled inside countless other applications that people use every day.
and to convince everyone:
SQLite source code is in the public-domain and is free to everyone to use for any purpose.
Let’s start our “brief” series of lessons:
| Lesson overview |
|---|
| SQLite – Create an SQLite database |
| SQLite – Create an SQLite table |
| SQLite – Add a row to a table |
| SQLite – Remove a row from a table |