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I can't answer for the person you're commenting to, but I use sqlite in a similar way and the loss of information isn't an issue. When you're exploring data, j
by ratrocket 4y ago
I can't answer for the person you're commenting to, but I use sqlite in a similar way and the loss of information isn't an issue. When you're exploring data, just trying to make sense of what someone has sent you (say, migrating data from an existing system to a new system) you probably have a pretty good idea if the column is supposed to have integers or strings in it. In my own use of it, it's very unlikely that the loss of information will cause a problem. Eventually the data will be type-checked -- not in sqlite (I haven't experimented with the new-ish "strict tables" feature yet), but in my case the data will eventually flow through a typed programming language.
Anyway, different ways to use the tool, for sure! And in some cases one would definitely need to be attuned to the issue you're raising. In the kind of situation I'm thinking of the data is usually so dirty anyway, a bit of string->integer conversion won't hurt (probably).
- dekhn 4y agoI get it, you don't have typing control over your data exchange. somebody might send you an unquoted-string CSV with multiple data types in the same column: id,location,name 1,90210,Tori Spelling 2,Schitt's Creek,Eugene Levy and you use sqlite to quickly explore the loaded data to check the set of types used in a column, and maybe even glean what the meaning is.
- ratrocket 4y agoExactly. The thing I'm talking about is necessarily a semi-manual process (data exploration, usually prior to migrating data from one system to another). In the example you give, when you've done all the exploration you need, there's a program interpreting that CSV that ensures the location column values are strings. At least, that's how I do it!