vsqlite

A SQLite CLI and library written in V.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/quaesitor-scientiam/vsqlite
cd vsqlite
make build

Requires V and SQLite development headers (libsqlite3-dev on Linux, included on macOS).

---

CLI

Open an interactive REPL

./vsqlite mydb.sqlite

Use :memory: for a temporary in-memory database:

./vsqlite :memory:

Run a single statement

./vsqlite mydb.sqlite "SELECT * FROM users"
./vsqlite mydb.sqlite "INSERT INTO users VALUES (1, 'Alice', 30)"
./vsqlite mydb.sqlite "CREATE TABLE logs (id INTEGER, msg TEXT)"

Execute a SQL file

./vsqlite mydb.sqlite -f schema.sql
./vsqlite mydb.sqlite -f seed.sql

Pipe queries non-interactively

echo "SELECT count(*) FROM users" | ./vsqlite mydb.sqlite
printf ".mode csv\nSELECT * FROM users\n" | ./vsqlite mydb.sqlite > out.csv

---

Interactive commands

Command	Description
.tables	List all tables
.schema [table]	Show CREATE statement for a table (or all objects)
.mode <mode> [tbl]	Change output format (default: table) — see modes below
.headers on|off	Toggle column headers
.nullvalue <str>	Set display string for NULL values (default: NULL)
.separator <sep>	Set column separator for csv/quote modes (default: ,; use \t for tab)
.width [N1 N2 …]	Fix per-column widths in table/box/markdown modes; .width 0 resets to auto
.output [file|-]	Redirect all query output to file; no arg or - resets to stdout
.once <file>	Redirect the next query result only to file, then resume stdout
.timer [on|off]	Toggle execution timing; prints elapsed time after each statement
.explain <stmt>	Show EXPLAIN QUERY PLAN as an indented tree for stmt
.import <file> <table>	Import a CSV or TSV file into a table (.tsv/.tab auto-detected)
.export <file>	Export the last query result to CSV
.dump [file]	Dump full SQL schema + data to stdout, or to file
.load <file> [entry]	Load a SQLite extension (.so/.dylib)
.bail on|off	Stop on first SQL error; off (default) continues
.echo on|off	Echo each statement to stdout before executing
.log <file>|off	Append every executed statement to file; off disables
.changes on|off	Print Changes: N after each INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE
.open <file>	Open a new database file (replaces the current connection)
.indexes [table]	List indexes
.databases	List attached databases
.size	Show database file size
.help	Show all commands
.quit / .exit / Ctrl+D	Exit

Multi-line statements

The REPL accumulates input until a semicolon (;) is entered, just like sqlite3:

vsqlite> SELECT id, name
     ...> FROM users
     ...> WHERE age > 25;

Dot commands (.tables, .mode, …) execute immediately and do not need a semicolon.

Line editing

The interactive REPL uses V's built-in readline module for a full line-editing experience:

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Walk command history
Ctrl+R	Reverse incremental history search
← / →	Move cursor within the line
Home / Ctrl+A	Jump to beginning of line
End / Ctrl+E	Jump to end of line
Ctrl+K	Delete to end of line
Backspace / Delete	Delete character

History is persisted to ~/.vsqlite_history across sessions.

Tab completion

Press Tab to complete the current token against SQL keywords, table names, column names, and dot commands:

vsqlite> SELECT * FROM us<TAB>  →  SELECT * FROM users
vsqlite> .tab<TAB>              →  .tables
vsqlite> SEL<TAB>               →  SELECT

Press Tab again to cycle through additional matches. The completion list is refreshed automatically after CREATE, DROP, and ALTER statements.

Output modes

table (default) — aligned ASCII table with bold headers

+----+-------+-----+
| id | name  | age |
+----+-------+-----+
| 1  | Alice | 30  |
+----+-------+-----+

box — same as table but with Unicode box-drawing characters

┌────┬───────┬─────┐
│ id │ name  │ age │
├────┼───────┼─────┤
│ 1  │ Alice │ 30  │
└────┴───────┴─────┘

markdown — GitHub-Flavored Markdown table

| id | name  | age |
| -- | ----- | --- |
| 1  | Alice | 30  |

csv — RFC 4180 CSV (separator controlled by .separator)

id,name,age
1,Alice,30

line — one field per line, useful for wide rows

 id: 1
name: Alice
 age: 30

json — JSON array of objects; SQL NULLs become JSON null

[{"id":"1","name":"Alice","age":"30"}]

html — HTML <table> with optional <th> headers; values are HTML-escaped

<table>
<tr><th>id</th><th>name</th><th>age</th></tr>
<tr><td>1</td><td>Alice</td><td>30</td></tr>
</table>

insert — SQL INSERT statements (table name set via .mode insert <tbl>)

INSERT INTO users(id,name,age) VALUES('1','Alice','30');

quote — SQL-quoted values, one row per line (separator controlled by .separator)

'1','Alice','30'

---

Running tests

make test

---

Comparison with sqlite3

See COMPARISON.md for a detailed feature comparison with the official sqlite3 CLI.