What is the best way to connect and use a sqlite database from C#
Question
I've done this before in C++ by including sqlite.h but is there a similarly easy way in C#?
Solution
ADO.NET 2.0 Provider for SQLite has over 200 downloads every day, so I think you are safe using that one.
OTHER TIPS
I'm with, Bruce. I AM using http://system.data.sqlite.org/ with great success as well. Here's a simple class example that I created:
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SQLite;
namespace MySqlLite
{
class DataClass
{
private SQLiteConnection sqlite;
public DataClass()
{
//This part killed me in the beginning. I was specifying "DataSource"
//instead of "Data Source"
sqlite = new SQLiteConnection("Data Source=/path/to/file.db");
}
public DataTable selectQuery(string query)
{
SQLiteDataAdapter ad;
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
try
{
SQLiteCommand cmd;
sqlite.Open(); //Initiate connection to the db
cmd = sqlite.CreateCommand();
cmd.CommandText = query; //set the passed query
ad = new SQLiteDataAdapter(cmd);
ad.Fill(dt); //fill the datasource
}
catch(SQLiteException ex)
{
//Add your exception code here.
}
sqlite.Close();
return dt;
}
}
There is also an NuGet package: System.Data.SQLite available.
I've used this with great success:
http://system.data.sqlite.org/
Free with no restrictions.
(Note from review: Original site no longer exists. The above link has a link pointing the the 404 site and has all the info of the original)
--Bruce
There is a list of Sqlite wrappers for .Net at http://www.sqlite.org/cvstrac/wiki?p=SqliteWrappers. From what I've heard http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/ is quite good. This particular one lets you access Sqlite through ADO.Net just like any other database.
There's also now this option: http://code.google.com/p/csharp-sqlite/ - a complete port of SQLite to C#.
https://github.com/praeclarum/sqlite-net is now probably the best option.
Another way of using SQLite database in NET Framework is to use Fluent-NHibernate.
[It is NET module which wraps around NHibernate (ORM module - Object Relational Mapping) and allows to configure NHibernate programmatically (without XML files) with the fluent pattern.]
Here is the brief 'Getting started' description how to do this in C# step by step:
https://github.com/jagregory/fluent-nhibernate/wiki/Getting-started
It includes a source code as an Visual Studio project.
Mono comes with a wrapper, use theirs!
https://github.com/mono/mono/tree/master/mcs/class/Mono.Data.Sqlite/Mono.Data.Sqlite_2.0 gives code to wrap the actual SQLite dll ( http://www.sqlite.org/sqlite-shell-win32-x86-3071300.zip found on the download page http://www.sqlite.org/download.html/ ) in a .net friendly way. It works on Linux or Windows.
This seems the thinnest of all worlds, minimizing your dependence on third party libraries. If I had to do this project from scratch, this is the way I would do it.