How to delete or add column in SQLITE?

I want to delete or add column in sqlite database

I am using following query to delete column.

ALTER TABLE TABLENAME DROP COLUMN COLUMNNAME

But it gives error

System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteException: SQLite error
near "DROP": syntax error

ALTER TABLE SQLite

>SQLite supports a limited subset of ALTER TABLE. The ALTER TABLE command in SQLite allows the user to rename a table or to add a new column to an existing table. It is not possible to rename a column, remove a column, or add or remove constraints from a table.

You can:

1. create new table as the one you are trying to change,
2. copy all data,
3. drop old table,
4. rename the new one.

I've wrote a Java implementation based on the Sqlite's recommended way to do this:

private void dropColumn(SQLiteDatabase db,
		ConnectionSource connectionSource,
		String createTableCmd,
		String tableName,
		String[] colsToRemove) throws java.sql.SQLException {

	List<String> updatedTableColumns = getTableColumns(tableName);
	// Remove the columns we don't want anymore from the table's list of columns
	updatedTableColumns.removeAll(Arrays.asList(colsToRemove));

	String columnsSeperated = TextUtils.join(",", updatedTableColumns);

	db.execSQL("ALTER TABLE " + tableName + " RENAME TO " + tableName + "_old;");

	// Creating the table on its new format (no redundant columns)
	db.execSQL(createTableCmd);

	// Populating the table with the data
	db.execSQL("INSERT INTO " + tableName + "(" + columnsSeperated + ") SELECT "
			+ columnsSeperated + " FROM " + tableName + "_old;");
	db.execSQL("DROP TABLE " + tableName + "_old;");
}

To get the table's column, I used the "PRAGMA table_info":

public List<String> getTableColumns(String tableName) {
    ArrayList<String> columns = new ArrayList<String>();
    String cmd = "pragma table_info(" + tableName + ");";
    Cursor cur = getDB().rawQuery(cmd, null);

    while (cur.moveToNext()) {
        columns.add(cur.getString(cur.getColumnIndex("name")));
    }
    cur.close();

    return columns;
}

I actually wrote about it on my blog, you can see more explanations there:

http://udinic.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/sqlite-drop-column-support/

As others have pointed out

> It is not possible to rename a column, remove a column, or add or > remove constraints from a table.

source : http://www.sqlite.org/lang_altertable.html

While you can always create a new table and then drop the older one. I will try to explain this workaround with an example.

sqlite> .schema
CREATE TABLE person(
 id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, 
 first_name TEXT,
 last_name TEXT, 
 age INTEGER, 
 height INTEGER
);
sqlite> select * from person ; 
id          first_name  last_name   age         height    
----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------
0           john        doe         20          170       
1           foo         bar         25          171       

Now you want to remove the column height from this table.

Create another table called new_person

sqlite> CREATE TABLE new_person(
   ...>  id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, 
   ...>  first_name TEXT, 
   ...>  last_name TEXT, 
   ...>  age INTEGER 
   ...> ) ; 
sqlite> 

Now copy the data from the old table

sqlite> INSERT INTO new_person
   ...> SELECT id, first_name, last_name, age FROM person ;
sqlite> select * from new_person ;
id          first_name  last_name   age       
----------  ----------  ----------  ----------
0           john        doe         20        
1           foo         bar         25        
sqlite>

Now Drop the person table and rename new_person to person

sqlite> DROP TABLE IF EXISTS person ; 
sqlite> ALTER TABLE new_person RENAME TO person ;
sqlite>

So now if you do a .schema, you will see

sqlite>.schema
CREATE TABLE "person"(
 id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, 
 first_name TEXT, 
 last_name TEXT, 
 age INTEGER 
);

SQLite 3.35.0 introduced support for ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN.

> ALTER TABLE > > The DROP COLUMN syntax is used to remove an existing column from a table. The DROP COLUMN command removes the named column from the table, and also rewrites the entire table to purge the data associated with that column. The DROP COLUMN command only works if the column is not referenced by any other parts of the schema and is not a PRIMARY KEY and does not have a UNIQUE constraint.

The following syntax will be valid:

ALTER TABLE <TABLENAME> DROP COLUMN <COLUMNNAME>;
ALTER TABLE <TABLENAME> DROP <COLUMNNAME>;

DB Browser for SQLite allows you to add or drop columns.

In the main view, tab Database Structure, click on the table name. A button Modify Table gets enabled, which opens a new window where you can select the column/field and remove it.

http://www.sqlite.org/lang_altertable.html

As you can see in the diagram, only ADD COLUMN is supported. There is a (kinda heavy) workaround, though: http://www.sqlite.org/faq.html#q11

At one time this was not directly supported and you would need to follow a four-step process: (1) create a temporary_table, (2) copy the data, (3) drop the old table, and then (4) rename the temporary_table.

But now that these features are supported, all you need to do is upgrade SQLite.

• 3.35.0 from 2021-03-12 adds ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN
• 3.25.0 from 2018-09-15 added ALTER TABLE RENAME COLUMN
• 3.2.0 from way back in 2005-03-21 added ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN

Note that there are still some edge cases where these may not work, e.g., you cannot drop a primary key column. See the documentation for more details. When these ALTER TABLE … COLUMN statements do not work, you can fall back to the four-step process.

By the way the four-step process is really a twelve-step process in the docs. But four of those steps are really important, easy to get wrong, and specifically called out in those docs.

We cannot drop a specific column in SQLite 3. See the FAQ.

As others have pointed out, sqlite's ALTER TABLE statement does not support DROP COLUMN, and the standard recipe to do this does not preserve constraints & indices.

Here's some python code to do this generically, while maintaining all the key constraints and indices.

Please back-up your database before using! This function relies on doctoring the original CREATE TABLE statement and is potentially a bit unsafe - for instance it will do the wrong thing if an identifier contains an embedded comma or parenthesis.

If anyone would care to contribute a better way to parse the SQL, that would be great!

UPDATE I found a better way to parse using the open-source sqlparse package. If there is any interest I will post it here, just leave a comment asking for it ...

import re
import random

def DROP_COLUMN(db, table, column):
    columns = [ c[1] for c in db.execute("PRAGMA table_info(%s)" % table) ]
    columns = [ c for c in columns if c != column ]
    sql = db.execute("SELECT sql from sqlite_master where name = '%s'" 
        % table).fetchone()[0]
    sql = format(sql)
    lines = sql.splitlines()
    findcol = r'\b%s\b' % column
    keeplines = [ line for line in lines if not re.search(findcol, line) ]
    create = '\n'.join(keeplines)
    create = re.sub(r',(\s*\))', r'\1', create)
    temp = 'tmp%d' % random.randint(1e8, 1e9)
    db.execute("ALTER TABLE %(old)s RENAME TO %(new)s" % { 
        'old': table, 'new': temp })
    db.execute(create)
    db.execute("""
        INSERT INTO %(new)s ( %(columns)s ) 
        SELECT %(columns)s FROM %(old)s
    """ % { 
        'old': temp,
        'new': table,
        'columns': ', '.join(columns)
    })  
    db.execute("DROP TABLE %s" % temp)

def format(sql):
    sql = sql.replace(",", ",\n")
    sql = sql.replace("(", "(\n")
    sql = sql.replace(")", "\n)")
    return sql

I rewrote the @Udinic answer so that the code generates table creation query automatically. It also doesn't need ConnectionSource. It also has to do this inside a transaction.

public static String getOneTableDbSchema(SQLiteDatabase db, String tableName) {
    Cursor c = db.rawQuery(
            "SELECT * FROM `sqlite_master` WHERE `type` = 'table' AND `name` = '" + tableName + "'", null);
    String result = null;
    if (c.moveToFirst()) {
        result = c.getString(c.getColumnIndex("sql"));
    }
    c.close();
    return result;
}

public List<String> getTableColumns(SQLiteDatabase db, String tableName) {
    ArrayList<String> columns = new ArrayList<>();
    String cmd = "pragma table_info(" + tableName + ");";
    Cursor cur = db.rawQuery(cmd, null);

    while (cur.moveToNext()) {
        columns.add(cur.getString(cur.getColumnIndex("name")));
    }
    cur.close();

    return columns;
}

private void dropColumn(SQLiteDatabase db, String tableName, String[] columnsToRemove) {
    db.beginTransaction();
    try {
        List<String> columnNamesWithoutRemovedOnes = getTableColumns(db, tableName);
        // Remove the columns we don't want anymore from the table's list of columns
        columnNamesWithoutRemovedOnes.removeAll(Arrays.asList(columnsToRemove));

        String newColumnNamesSeparated = TextUtils.join(" , ", columnNamesWithoutRemovedOnes);
        String sql = getOneTableDbSchema(db, tableName);
        // Extract the SQL query that contains only columns
        String oldColumnsSql = sql.substring(sql.indexOf("(")+1, sql.lastIndexOf(")"));

        db.execSQL("ALTER TABLE " + tableName + " RENAME TO " + tableName + "_old;");
        db.execSQL("CREATE TABLE `" + tableName + "` (" + getSqlWithoutRemovedColumns(oldColumnsSql, columnsToRemove)+ ");");
        db.execSQL("INSERT INTO " + tableName + "(" + newColumnNamesSeparated + ") SELECT " + newColumnNamesSeparated + " FROM " + tableName + "_old;");
        db.execSQL("DROP TABLE " + tableName + "_old;");
        db.setTransactionSuccessful();
    } catch {
        //Error in between database transaction 
    } finally {
        db.endTransaction();
    }

    
}

I have improved user2638929 answer and now it can preserves column type, primary key, default value etc.

public static void dropColumns(SQLiteDatabase database, String tableName, Collection<String> columnsToRemove){
    List<String> columnNames = new ArrayList<>();
    List<String> columnNamesWithType = new ArrayList<>();
    List<String> primaryKeys = new ArrayList<>();
    String query = "pragma table_info(" + tableName + ");";
    Cursor cursor = database.rawQuery(query,null);
    while (cursor.moveToNext()){
        String columnName = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex("name"));

        if (columnsToRemove.contains(columnName)){
            continue;
        }

        String columnType = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex("type"));
        boolean isNotNull = cursor.getInt(cursor.getColumnIndex("notnull")) == 1;
        boolean isPk = cursor.getInt(cursor.getColumnIndex("pk")) == 1;

        columnNames.add(columnName);
        String tmp = "`" + columnName + "` " + columnType + " ";
        if (isNotNull){
            tmp += " NOT NULL ";
        }

        int defaultValueType = cursor.getType(cursor.getColumnIndex("dflt_value"));
        if (defaultValueType == Cursor.FIELD_TYPE_STRING){
            tmp += " DEFAULT " + "\"" + cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex("dflt_value")) + "\" ";
        }else if(defaultValueType == Cursor.FIELD_TYPE_INTEGER){
            tmp += " DEFAULT " + cursor.getInt(cursor.getColumnIndex("dflt_value")) + " ";
        }else if (defaultValueType == Cursor.FIELD_TYPE_FLOAT){
            tmp += " DEFAULT " + cursor.getFloat(cursor.getColumnIndex("dflt_value")) + " ";
        }
        columnNamesWithType.add(tmp);
        if (isPk){
            primaryKeys.add("`" + columnName + "`");
        }
    }
    cursor.close();

    String columnNamesSeparated = TextUtils.join(", ", columnNames);
    if (primaryKeys.size() > 0){
        columnNamesWithType.add("PRIMARY KEY("+ TextUtils.join(", ", primaryKeys) +")");
    }
    String columnNamesWithTypeSeparated = TextUtils.join(", ", columnNamesWithType);

    database.beginTransaction();
    try {
        database.execSQL("ALTER TABLE " + tableName + " RENAME TO " + tableName + "_old;");
        database.execSQL("CREATE TABLE " + tableName + " (" + columnNamesWithTypeSeparated + ");");
        database.execSQL("INSERT INTO " + tableName + " (" + columnNamesSeparated + ") SELECT "
                + columnNamesSeparated + " FROM " + tableName + "_old;");
        database.execSQL("DROP TABLE " + tableName + "_old;");
        database.setTransactionSuccessful();
    }finally {
        database.endTransaction();
    }
}

PS. I used here android.arch.persistence.db.SupportSQLiteDatabase, but you can easyly modify it for use android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase

I guess what you are wanting to do is database migration. 'Drop'ping a column does not exist in SQLite. But you can however, add an extra column by using the ALTER table query.

you can use Sqlitebrowser. In the browser mode, for the respective database and the table, under the tab -database structure,following the option Modify Table, respective column could be removed.

You can use the SQlite Administrator for changing the column names. Right Click on Table name and select Edit Table.Here you will find the table structure and you can easily rename it.

As SQLite has limited support to ALTER TABLE so you can only ADD column at end of the table OR CHANGE TABLE_NAME in SQLite.

Here is the Best Answer of HOW TO DELETE COLUMN FROM SQLITE?

visit https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5938048/delete-column-from-sql-table

As an alternative:

If you have a table with schema

CREATE TABLE person(
  id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
  first_name TEXT,
  last_name TEXT,
  age INTEGER,
  height INTEGER
);

you can use a CREATE TABLE...AS statement like CREATE TABLE person2 AS SELECT id, first_name, last_name, age FROM person;, i.e. leave out the columns you don't want. Then drop the original person table and rename the new one.

Note this method produces a table has no PRIMARY KEY and no constraints. To preserve those, utilize the methods others described to create a new table, or use a temporary table as an intermediate.

This answer to a different question is oriented toward modifying a column, but I believe a portion of the answer could also yield a useful approach if you have lots of columns and don't want to retype most of them by hand for your INSERT statement:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/10385666

You could dump your database as described in the link above, then grab the "create table" statement and an "insert" template from that dump, then follow the instructions in the SQLite FAQ entry "How do I add or delete columns from an existing table in SQLite." (FAQ is linked elsewhere on this page.)

Implementation in Python based on information at http://www.sqlite.org/faq.html#q11.

import sqlite3 as db
import random
import string

QUERY_TEMPLATE_GET_COLUMNS = "PRAGMA table_info(@table_name)"
QUERY_TEMPLATE_DROP_COLUMN = """
  BEGIN TRANSACTION;
  CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE @tmp_table(@columns_to_keep);
  INSERT INTO @tmp_table SELECT @columns_to_keep FROM @table_name;
  DROP TABLE @table_name;
  CREATE TABLE @table_name(@columns_to_keep);
  INSERT INTO @table_name SELECT @columns_to_keep FROM @tmp_table;
  DROP TABLE @tmp_table;
  COMMIT;
"""

def drop_column(db_file, table_name, column_name):
    con = db.connect(db_file)
    QUERY_GET_COLUMNS = QUERY_TEMPLATE_GET_COLUMNS.replace("@table_name", table_name)
    query_res = con.execute(QUERY_GET_COLUMNS).fetchall()
    columns_list_to_keep = [i[1] for i in query_res if i[1] != column_name]
    columns_to_keep = ",".join(columns_list_to_keep)
    tmp_table = "tmp_%s" % "".join(random.sample(string.ascii_lowercase, 10))
    QUERY_DROP_COLUMN = QUERY_TEMPLATE_DROP_COLUMN.replace("@table_name", table_name)\
        .replace("@tmp_table", tmp_table).replace("@columns_to_keep", columns_to_keep)
    con.executescript(QUERY_DROP_COLUMN)
    con.close()

drop_column(DB_FILE, TABLE_NAME, COLUMN_NAME)

This script first makes random temporary table and inserts data of only necessary columns except the one that will will be dropped. Then restores the original table based on the temporary table and drops the temporary table.

My solution, only need to call this method.

public static void dropColumn(SQLiteDatabase db, String tableName, String[] columnsToRemove) throws java.sql.SQLException {
    List<String> updatedTableColumns = getTableColumns(db, tableName);
    updatedTableColumns.removeAll(Arrays.asList(columnsToRemove));
    String columnsSeperated = TextUtils.join(",", updatedTableColumns);

    db.execSQL("ALTER TABLE " + tableName + " RENAME TO " + tableName + "_old;");
    db.execSQL("CREATE TABLE " + tableName + " (" + columnsSeperated + ");");
    db.execSQL("INSERT INTO " + tableName + "(" + columnsSeperated + ") SELECT "
            + columnsSeperated + " FROM " + tableName + "_old;");
    db.execSQL("DROP TABLE " + tableName + "_old;");
}

And auxiliary method to get the columns:

public static List<String> getTableColumns(SQLiteDatabase db, String tableName) {
    ArrayList<String> columns = new ArrayList<>();
    String cmd = "pragma table_info(" + tableName + ");";
    Cursor cur = db.rawQuery(cmd, null);

    while (cur.moveToNext()) {
        columns.add(cur.getString(cur.getColumnIndex("name")));
    }
    cur.close();

    return columns;
}

public void DeleteColFromTable(String DbName, String TableName, String ColName){
    SQLiteDatabase db = openOrCreateDatabase(""+DbName+"", Context.MODE_PRIVATE, null);
    db.execSQL("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS "+TableName+"(1x00dff);");
    Cursor c = db.rawQuery("PRAGMA table_info("+TableName+")", null);
    if (c.getCount() == 0) {

    } else {
        String columns1 = "";
        String columns2 = "";
        while (c.moveToNext()) {
            if (c.getString(1).equals(ColName)) {
            } else {
                columns1 = columns1 + ", " + c.getString(1) + " " + c.getString(2);
                columns2 = columns2 + ", " + c.getString(1);
            }
            if (c.isLast()) {
                db.execSQL("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS DataBackup (" + columns1 + ");");
                db.execSQL("INSERT INTO DataBackup SELECT " + columns2 + " FROM "+TableName+";");
                db.execSQL("DROP TABLE "+TableName+"");
                db.execSQL("ALTER TABLE DataBackup RENAME TO "+TableName+";");
            }
        }
    }
}

and just call a method

DeleteColFromTable("Database name","Table name","Col name which want to delete");

Kotlin solution, based on here , but also:

1. Ensures the temporary table doesn't already exist
2. Has a fix of checking the type for the default value, as it returns String type when it's an Integer (reported about this issue here).
3. Avoids doing anything if the columns that you wish to remove don't exist anyway.

object DbUtil {
    /** https://stackoverflow.com/a/51587449/878126 */
    @JvmStatic
    fun dropColumns(database: SQLiteDatabase, tableName: String,
        columnsToRemove: Collection<String>) {
        val columnNames: MutableList<String> = ArrayList()
        val columnNamesWithType: MutableList<String> = ArrayList()
        val primaryKeys: MutableList<String> = ArrayList()
        val query = "pragma table_info($tableName);"
        val cursor = database.rawQuery(query, null)
        val columnDefaultIndex = cursor.getColumnIndex("dflt_value")
        val columnNameIndex = cursor.getColumnIndex("name")
        val columnTypeIndex = cursor.getColumnIndex("type")
        val columnNotNullIndex = cursor.getColumnIndex("notnull")
        val columnPrimaryKeyIndex = cursor.getColumnIndex("pk")
        val sb = StringBuilder()
        var foundColumnsToRemove = false
        while (cursor.moveToNext()) {
            val columnName = cursor.getString(columnNameIndex)
            if (columnsToRemove.contains(columnName)) {
                foundColumnsToRemove = true
                continue
            }
            val columnType = cursor.getString(columnTypeIndex)
            val isNotNull = cursor.getInt(columnNotNullIndex) == 1
            val isPrimaryKey = cursor.getInt(columnPrimaryKeyIndex) == 1
            columnNames.add(columnName)
            sb.clear()
            sb.append("`$columnName` $columnType ")
            if (isNotNull)
                sb.append(" NOT NULL ")
            if (cursor.getType(columnDefaultIndex) != Cursor.FIELD_TYPE_NULL) {
                //has default value
                when (columnType.uppercase()) {
                    "INTEGER" -> sb.append(" DEFAULT ${cursor.getInt(columnDefaultIndex)} ")
                    "TEXT" -> sb.append(" DEFAULT \"${cursor.getString(columnDefaultIndex)}\" ")
                    "REAL" -> sb.append(" DEFAULT ${cursor.getFloat(columnDefaultIndex)} ")
                }
            }
            columnNamesWithType.add(sb.toString())
            if (isPrimaryKey)
                primaryKeys.add("`$columnName`")
        }
        cursor.close()
        if (!foundColumnsToRemove)
            return
        val columnNamesSeparated = TextUtils.join(", ", columnNames)
        if (primaryKeys.size > 0)
            columnNamesWithType.add("PRIMARY KEY(${TextUtils.join(", ", primaryKeys)})")
        val columnNamesWithTypeSeparated = TextUtils.join(", ", columnNamesWithType)
        database.beginTransaction()
        try {
            var newTempTableName: String
            var counter = 0
            while (true) {
                newTempTableName = "${tableName}_old_$counter"
                if (!isTableExists(database, newTempTableName))
                    break
                ++counter
            }
            database.execSQL("ALTER TABLE $tableName RENAME TO $newTempTableName;")
            database.execSQL("CREATE TABLE $tableName ($columnNamesWithTypeSeparated);")
            database.execSQL(
                "INSERT INTO $tableName ($columnNamesSeparated) SELECT $columnNamesSeparated FROM $newTempTableName;")
            database.execSQL("DROP TABLE ${newTempTableName};")
            database.setTransactionSuccessful()
        } finally {
            database.endTransaction()
        }
    }

    @JvmStatic
    fun isTableExists(database: SQLiteDatabase, tableName: String): Boolean {
        database.rawQuery(
            "select DISTINCT tbl_name from sqlite_master where tbl_name = '$tableName'", null)
            ?.use {
                return it.count > 0
            } ?: return false
    }
}

You can also now use DB browser for SQLite to manipulate columns