What is the ROWID in a SQLite table?

Every ordinary SQLite table (unless explicitly declared WITHOUT ROWID) has a hidden rowid column — a 64-bit signed integer that uniquely identifies each row and serves as the key of the table's underlying B-tree, regardless of whether you've defined your own primary key.

SELECT rowid, name FROM person;   -- rowid is accessible even if not explicitly declared

If a table declares an INTEGER PRIMARY KEY column, that column becomes an alias for rowid itself (same underlying value, just referenceable by your chosen column name), which is why looking a row up by that column is exceptionally fast — it's a direct B-tree key lookup, not a secondary index traversal. Tables declared WITHOUT ROWID skip this hidden column entirely, storing rows keyed directly by their declared primary key instead.

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