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Database / SQLite Interview questions

What is the sqlite3 command-line shell used for?

sqlite3 is SQLite's official interactive command-line tool for opening a database file, running SQL directly, and inspecting schema — the most common way to explore or debug a SQLite database without writing any application code.

$ sqlite3 mydata.db
sqlite> .tables
sqlite> .schema person
sqlite> SELECT * FROM person;

Beyond plain SQL, it supports "dot commands" (starting with .) for shell-specific operations like .tables (list tables), .schema (show a table's CREATE TABLE statement), .mode (change output formatting, e.g. to CSV), and .backup (create a backup file) — these dot commands are specific to the shell tool itself, not part of standard SQL.

What is the sqlite3 command-line tool primarily used for?
What are 'dot commands' like .tables and .schema?

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