SQLite Python: Creating Tables

Summary: in this tutorial, we will show you how to create tables in the SQLite database from the Python program using the sqlite3 module.

To create a new table in an SQLite database from a Python program, you use the following steps:

First, create a Connection object using the connect() function of the sqlite3 module.
Second, create a Cursor object by calling the cursor() method of the Connection object.
Third, pass the CREATE TABLE statement to the execute() method of the Cursor object and execute this method.

For the demonstration, we will create two tables: projects and tasks as shown in the following database diagram:

The following CREATE TABLE statements create these two tables:

-- projects table
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS projects (
 id integer PRIMARY KEY,
 name text NOT NULL,
 begin_date text,
 end_date text
 );

-- tasks table CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS tasks ( id integer PRIMARY KEY, name text NOT NULL, priority integer, project_id integer NOT NULL, status_id integer NOT NULL, begin_date text NOT NULL, end_date text NOT NULL, FOREIGN KEY (project_id) REFERENCES projects (id) );

Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Let’s see how to create new tables in Python.

First, develop a function called create_connection() that returns a Connection object which represents an SQLite database specified by the database file parameter db_file.

def create_connection(db_file):
 """ create a database connection to the SQLite database
 specified by db_file
 :param db_file: database file
 :return: Connection object or None
 """
 conn = None
 try:
 conn = sqlite3.connect(db_file)
 return conn
 except Error as e:
 print(e)

return conn

Code language: Python (python)

Second, develop a function named create_table() that accepts a Connection object and an SQL statement. Inside the function, we call the execute() method of the Cursor object to execute the CREATE TABLE statement.

def create_table(conn, create_table_sql):
 """ create a table from the create_table_sql statement
 :param conn: Connection object
 :param create_table_sql: a CREATE TABLE statement
 :return:
 """
 try:
 c = conn.cursor()
 c.execute(create_table_sql)
 except Error as e:
 print(e)

Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Third, create a main() function to create the projects and tasks tables.

def main():
 database = r"C:\sqlite\db\pythonsqlite.db"
 sql_create_projects_table = """ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS projects (
 id integer PRIMARY KEY,
 name text NOT NULL,
 begin_date text,
 end_date text
 ); """
 sql_create_tasks_table = """CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS tasks (
 id integer PRIMARY KEY,
 name text NOT NULL,
 priority integer,
 status_id integer NOT NULL,
 project_id integer NOT NULL,
 begin_date text NOT NULL,
 end_date text NOT NULL,
 FOREIGN KEY (project_id) REFERENCES projects (id)
 );"""
 # create a database connection
 conn = create_connection(database)
 # create tables
 if conn is not None:
 # create projects table
 create_table(conn, sql_create_projects_table)

# create tasks table create_table(conn, sql_create_tasks_table) else: print("Error! cannot create the database connection.")

Code language: Python (python)

Fourth, execute the main() function.

if __name__ == '__main__':
 main()

Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Here is the full program:

import sqlite3
 from sqlite3 import Error
def create_connection(db_file):
 """ create a database connection to the SQLite database
 specified by db_file
 :param db_file: database file
 :return: Connection object or None
 """
 conn = None
 try:
 conn = sqlite3.connect(db_file)
 return conn
 except Error as e:
 print(e)
 return conn
def create_table(conn, create_table_sql):
 """ create a table from the create_table_sql statement
 :param conn: Connection object
 :param create_table_sql: a CREATE TABLE statement
 :return:
 """
 try:
 c = conn.cursor()
 c.execute(create_table_sql)
 except Error as e:
 print(e)
def main():
 database = r"C:\sqlite\db\pythonsqlite.db"
 sql_create_projects_table = """ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS projects (
 id integer PRIMARY KEY,
 name text NOT NULL,
 begin_date text,
 end_date text
 ); """
 sql_create_tasks_table = """CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS tasks (
 id integer PRIMARY KEY,
 name text NOT NULL,
 priority integer,
 status_id integer NOT NULL,
 project_id integer NOT NULL,
 begin_date text NOT NULL,
 end_date text NOT NULL,
 FOREIGN KEY (project_id) REFERENCES projects (id)
 );"""
 # create a database connection
 conn = create_connection(database)
 # create tables
 if conn is not None:
 # create projects table
 create_table(conn, sql_create_projects_table)
 # create tasks table
 create_table(conn, sql_create_tasks_table)
 else:
 print("Error! cannot create the database connection.")

if __name__ == '__main__': main()

Code language: Python (python)

Let’s verify if the program has created those tables successfully in the pythonsqlite.db database.

First, launch the command line and connect to the pythonsqlite.db database:

>sqlite3 c:\sqlite\db\pythonsqlite.db

Then, use the .tables command to display the tables in the database.

sqlite> .tables
 projects tasks

Code language: CSS (css)

sqlite python create table - list tables

As you can see clearly from the output, we are having the projects and tasks tables in the pythonsqlite.db database. And the program works as expected.

In this tutorial, you have learned how to create new tables in the SQLite database using the execute() method of the Cursor object.

SQLite Python: Creating Tables

SQLite Python: Creating Tables

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