New in PHP version 5 is the compact and small database connection called SQLite. As its name suggests, it is a small and lightweight database tool. This database product comes with PHP 5 and is now available in PHP by default. SQLite is ready to go right out of the box when you install PHP, so if you are looking for a lightweight and compact database tool, be sure to read up on SQLite
There is an OOP interface to SQLite, so you can instantiate an object with the following statement:
$db = new SQLiteDatabase(“c:/copy/library.sqlite”);
Example of SQLite
$sql = "CREATE TABLE 'authors' ('authorid' INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, 'name' TEXT)";
if (!$database->queryExec($sql, $error)) {
echo "Create Failure - {$error}<br />";
}
else {
echo "Table Authors was created <br />";
}
$sql = <<<SQL
INSERT INTO 'authors' ('name') VALUES ('J.R.R. Tolkien');
INSERT INTO 'authors' ('name') VALUES ('Alex Haley');
INSERT INTO 'authors' ('name') VALUES ('Tom Clancy');
INSERT INTO 'authors' ('name') VALUES ('Isaac Asimov');
SQL;
if (!$database->queryExec($sql, $error)) {
echo "Insert Failure - {$error}<br />";
}
else {
echo "INSERT to Authors - OK<br />";
}
Table Authors was created
INSERT to Authors – OK
Data types available in SQLite
| Data type | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Text | Stores data as NULL, TEXT, or BLOB content. If a number is supplied to a text field, it is converted to text before it is stored. |
| Numeric | Can store either integer or real data. If text data is supplied, an attempt is made to convert the information to numerical format. |
| Integer | Behaves the same as the numeric data type. However, if data of real format is supplied, it is stored as an integer. This may affect data storage accuracy |
| Real | Behaves the same as the numeric data type, except that it forces integer values into floating-point representation. |
| None | This is a catchall data type. This type does not prefer one base type to another. Data is stored exactly as supplied |