In SQLite, text is indeed a data type. The text data type in SQLite is used to store alphanumeric characters or strings. It is one of the most commonly used data types and allows you to store textual information in your database.
Data Types in SQLite
SQLite is a lightweight, serverless database engine that provides various data types for storing different kinds of information. These data types include:
- NULL: represents a missing or undefined value.
- INTEGER: stores whole numbers.
- REAL: stores floating-point numbers.
- TEXT: stores alphanumeric characters or strings.
- BLOB: stores binary large objects like images or documents.
The TEXT Data Type in SQLite
The TEXT data type in SQLite is used to store textual information such as names, addresses, descriptions, or any other string-based values. When you define a column with the TEXT data type, it can hold any valid UTF-8 character sequence up to a maximum length of 2^31-1 (or 2147483647) bytes.
To create a table with a column of type TEXT, you can use the following syntax:
CREATE TABLE my_table (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
name TEXT,
description TEXT
);
In this example, we create a table called “my_table” with three columns: “id” of type INTEGER (which serves as the primary key), “name” of type TEXT, and “description” of type TEXT.
Storing and Retrieving Text Values
When inserting data into a TEXT column, you can simply provide the text value as a string:
INSERT INTO my_table (name, description) VALUES ('John Doe', 'A person of interest.');
To retrieve the stored text values, you can use SQL SELECT statements:
SELECT name, description FROM my_table;
Working with Text Data in SQLite
SQLite provides various SQL functions to manipulate and query text data. Some commonly used functions include:
- LENGTH(): returns the length of a text string.
- SUBSTR(): extracts a substring from a text string.
- UPPER(): converts a text string to uppercase.
- LOWER(): converts a text string to lowercase.
- LIKE: performs pattern-matching on text values using wildcards.
Conclusion
The TEXT data type in SQLite is an essential part of storing and manipulating textual information. Whether it’s storing names, descriptions, or any other string-based values, the TEXT data type allows you to handle and query textual data effectively in your SQLite databases.