List of tables, db schema, dump etc using the Python sqlite3 API

Question or problem about Python programming:

For some reason I can’t find a way to get the equivalents of sqlite’s interactive shell commands:

.tables
.dump

using the Python sqlite3 API.

Is there anything like that?

How to solve the problem:

Solution 1:

You can fetch the list of tables and schemata by querying the SQLITE_MASTER table:

sqlite> .tab
job         snmptarget  t1          t2          t3        
sqlite> select name from sqlite_master where type = 'table';
job
t1
t2
snmptarget
t3

sqlite> .schema job
CREATE TABLE job (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
    data VARCHAR
);
sqlite> select sql from sqlite_master where type = 'table' and name = 'job';
CREATE TABLE job (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
    data VARCHAR
)

Solution 2:

In Python:

con = sqlite3.connect('database.db')
cursor = con.cursor()
cursor.execute("SELECT name FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table';")
print(cursor.fetchall())

Watch out for my other answer. There is a much faster way using pandas.

Solution 3:

The FASTEST way of doing this in python is using Pandas (version 0.16 and up).

Dump one table:

db = sqlite3.connect('database.db')
table = pd.read_sql_query("SELECT * from table_name", db)
table.to_csv(table_name + '.csv', index_label='index')

Dump all tables:

import sqlite3
import pandas as pd


def to_csv():
    db = sqlite3.connect('database.db')
    cursor = db.cursor()
    cursor.execute("SELECT name FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table';")
    tables = cursor.fetchall()
    for table_name in tables:
        table_name = table_name[0]
        table = pd.read_sql_query("SELECT * from %s" % table_name, db)
        table.to_csv(table_name + '.csv', index_label='index')
    cursor.close()
    db.close()

Solution 4:

I’m not familiar with the Python API but you can always use

SELECT * FROM sqlite_master;

Solution 5:

Here’s a short and simple python program to print out the table names and the column names for those tables (python 2. python 3 follows).

import sqlite3

db_filename = 'database.sqlite'
newline_indent = '\n   '

db=sqlite3.connect(db_filename)
db.text_factory = str
cur = db.cursor()

result = cur.execute("SELECT name FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table';").fetchall()
table_names = sorted(zip(*result)[0])
print "\ntables are:"+newline_indent+newline_indent.join(table_names)

for table_name in table_names:
    result = cur.execute("PRAGMA table_info('%s')" % table_name).fetchall()
    column_names = zip(*result)[1]
    print ("\ncolumn names for %s:" % table_name)+newline_indent+(newline_indent.join(column_names))

db.close()
print "\nexiting."

(EDIT: I have been getting periodic vote-ups on this, so here is the python3 version for people who are finding this answer)

import sqlite3

db_filename = 'database.sqlite'
newline_indent = '\n   '

db=sqlite3.connect(db_filename)
db.text_factory = str
cur = db.cursor()

result = cur.execute("SELECT name FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table';").fetchall()
table_names = sorted(list(zip(*result))[0])
print ("\ntables are:"+newline_indent+newline_indent.join(table_names))

for table_name in table_names:
    result = cur.execute("PRAGMA table_info('%s')" % table_name).fetchall()
    column_names = list(zip(*result))[1]
    print (("\ncolumn names for %s:" % table_name)
           +newline_indent
           +(newline_indent.join(column_names)))

db.close()
print ("\nexiting.")

Hope this helps!