Explore The Database Schema

The first thing I like to do when connecting to a database is get a quick lay of the land. What are the tables and what do they look like?

I can list all tables with the .tables dot-command.

sqlite> .tables
ingredient_amounts  ingredients         recipes

I can then look at the create table statement for specific tables to see what their schema looks like:

sqlite> .schema recipes
CREATE TABLE recipes (
  id integer primary key,
  name varchar not null,
  description text not null,
  instructions text not null
);

The .schema dot-command can also be used without any argument and it will display the schema for all tables of all connected databases.

Run .help from the sqlite3 prompt for more dot-command options.