How to delete or add column in SQLITE?

Question

I want to delete or add column in sqlite database

I am using following query to delete column.

ALTER TABLE TABLENAME DROP COLUMN COLUMNNAME

But it gives error

System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteException: SQLite error
near "DROP": syntax error

Answer 1

I've wrote a Java implementation based on the Sqlite's recommended way to do this:

private void dropColumn(SQLiteDatabase db,
        ConnectionSource connectionSource,
        String createTableCmd,
        String tableName,
        String[] colsToRemove) throws java.sql.SQLException {

    List<String> updatedTableColumns = getTableColumns(tableName);
    // Remove the columns we don't want anymore from the table's list of columns
    updatedTableColumns.removeAll(Arrays.asList(colsToRemove));

    String columnsSeperated = TextUtils.join(",", updatedTableColumns);

    db.execSQL("ALTER TABLE " + tableName + " RENAME TO " + tableName + "_old;");

    // Creating the table on its new format (no redundant columns)
    db.execSQL(createTableCmd);

    // Populating the table with the data
    db.execSQL("INSERT INTO " + tableName + "(" + columnsSeperated + ") SELECT "
            + columnsSeperated + " FROM " + tableName + "_old;");
    db.execSQL("DROP TABLE " + tableName + "_old;");
}

To get the table's column, I used the "PRAGMA table_info":

public List<String> getTableColumns(String tableName) {
    ArrayList<String> columns = new ArrayList<String>();
    String cmd = "pragma table_info(" + tableName + ");";
    Cursor cur = getDB().rawQuery(cmd, null);

    while (cur.moveToNext()) {
        columns.add(cur.getString(cur.getColumnIndex("name")));
    }
    cur.close();

    return columns;
}

I actually wrote about it on my blog, you can see more explanations there:

http://udinic.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/sqlite-drop-column-support/

Answer 2

My solution, only need to call this method.

public static void dropColumn(SQLiteDatabase db, String tableName, String[] columnsToRemove) throws java.sql.SQLException {
    List<String> updatedTableColumns = getTableColumns(db, tableName);
    updatedTableColumns.removeAll(Arrays.asList(columnsToRemove));
    String columnsSeperated = TextUtils.join(",", updatedTableColumns);

    db.execSQL("ALTER TABLE " + tableName + " RENAME TO " + tableName + "_old;");
    db.execSQL("CREATE TABLE " + tableName + " (" + columnsSeperated + ");");
    db.execSQL("INSERT INTO " + tableName + "(" + columnsSeperated + ") SELECT "
            + columnsSeperated + " FROM " + tableName + "_old;");
    db.execSQL("DROP TABLE " + tableName + "_old;");
}

And auxiliary method to get the columns:

public static List<String> getTableColumns(SQLiteDatabase db, String tableName) {
    ArrayList<String> columns = new ArrayList<>();
    String cmd = "pragma table_info(" + tableName + ");";
    Cursor cur = db.rawQuery(cmd, null);

    while (cur.moveToNext()) {
        columns.add(cur.getString(cur.getColumnIndex("name")));
    }
    cur.close();

    return columns;
}

Answer 3

We cannot drop a specific column in SQLite 3. See the FAQ.

Answer 4

I rewrote the @Udinic answer so that the code generates table creation query automatically. It also doesn't need ConnectionSource. It also has to do this inside a transaction.

public static String getOneTableDbSchema(SQLiteDatabase db, String tableName) {
    Cursor c = db.rawQuery(
            "SELECT * FROM `sqlite_master` WHERE `type` = 'table' AND `name` = '" + tableName + "'", null);
    String result = null;
    if (c.moveToFirst()) {
        result = c.getString(c.getColumnIndex("sql"));
    }
    c.close();
    return result;
}

public List<String> getTableColumns(SQLiteDatabase db, String tableName) {
    ArrayList<String> columns = new ArrayList<>();
    String cmd = "pragma table_info(" + tableName + ");";
    Cursor cur = db.rawQuery(cmd, null);

    while (cur.moveToNext()) {
        columns.add(cur.getString(cur.getColumnIndex("name")));
    }
    cur.close();

    return columns;
}

private void dropColumn(SQLiteDatabase db, String tableName, String[] columnsToRemove) {
    db.beginTransaction();
    try {
        List<String> columnNamesWithoutRemovedOnes = getTableColumns(db, tableName);
        // Remove the columns we don't want anymore from the table's list of columns
        columnNamesWithoutRemovedOnes.removeAll(Arrays.asList(columnsToRemove));

        String newColumnNamesSeparated = TextUtils.join(" , ", columnNamesWithoutRemovedOnes);
        String sql = getOneTableDbSchema(db, tableName);
        // Extract the SQL query that contains only columns
        String oldColumnsSql = sql.substring(sql.indexOf("(")+1, sql.lastIndexOf(")"));

        db.execSQL("ALTER TABLE " + tableName + " RENAME TO " + tableName + "_old;");
        db.execSQL("CREATE TABLE `" + tableName + "` (" + getSqlWithoutRemovedColumns(oldColumnsSql, columnsToRemove)+ ");");
        db.execSQL("INSERT INTO " + tableName + "(" + newColumnNamesSeparated + ") SELECT " + newColumnNamesSeparated + " FROM " + tableName + "_old;");
        db.execSQL("DROP TABLE " + tableName + "_old;");
        db.setTransactionSuccessful();
    } catch {
        //Error in between database transaction 
    } finally {
        db.endTransaction();
    }


}

Answer 5

As others have pointed out, sqlite's ALTER TABLE statement does not support DROP COLUMN, and the standard recipe to do this does not preserve constraints & indices.

Here's some python code to do this generically, while maintaining all the key constraints and indices.

Please back-up your database before using! This function relies on doctoring the original CREATE TABLE statement and is potentially a bit unsafe - for instance it will do the wrong thing if an identifier contains an embedded comma or parenthesis.

If anyone would care to contribute a better way to parse the SQL, that would be great!

UPDATE I found a better way to parse using the open-source sqlparse package. If there is any interest I will post it here, just leave a comment asking for it ...

import re
import random

def DROP_COLUMN(db, table, column):
    columns = [ c[1] for c in db.execute("PRAGMA table_info(%s)" % table) ]
    columns = [ c for c in columns if c != column ]
    sql = db.execute("SELECT sql from sqlite_master where name = '%s'" 
        % table).fetchone()[0]
    sql = format(sql)
    lines = sql.splitlines()
    findcol = r'\b%s\b' % column
    keeplines = [ line for line in lines if not re.search(findcol, line) ]
    create = '\n'.join(keeplines)
    create = re.sub(r',(\s*\))', r'\1', create)
    temp = 'tmp%d' % random.randint(1e8, 1e9)
    db.execute("ALTER TABLE %(old)s RENAME TO %(new)s" % { 
        'old': table, 'new': temp })
    db.execute(create)
    db.execute("""
        INSERT INTO %(new)s ( %(columns)s ) 
        SELECT %(columns)s FROM %(old)s
    """ % { 
        'old': temp,
        'new': table,
        'columns': ', '.join(columns)
    })  
    db.execute("DROP TABLE %s" % temp)

def format(sql):
    sql = sql.replace(",", ",\n")
    sql = sql.replace("(", "(\n")
    sql = sql.replace(")", "\n)")
    return sql

Answer 6

This answer to a different question is oriented toward modifying a column, but I believe a portion of the answer could also yield a useful approach if you have lots of columns and don't want to retype most of them by hand for your INSERT statement:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/10385666

You could dump your database as described in the link above, then grab the "create table" statement and an "insert" template from that dump, then follow the instructions in the SQLite FAQ entry "How do I add or delete columns from an existing table in SQLite." (FAQ is linked elsewhere on this page.)