The latest version of DB Browser for SQLite is 3.11 on Mac Informer. It is a perfect match for the Developer Tools category. The app is developed by Mauricio Piacentini and its user rating is 4 out of 5. Update installer.dmg on Mac OS - #693 (thanks to @justinclift and @revolter) Add Create Index button in the toolbar and fixed Create Index dialog sizing - #704 (thanks to @revolter ) Add backspace alongside delete key for cell empty, for laptops missing the delete key - #705 (thanks to @justinclift ). SQLite database browser and navigator contains features such as browsing database objects and structures, generating SQL, and more, and is available for macOS / Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. Base 2, Navicat for SQLite, and DB Browser for SQLite are probably your best bets out of the 9 options considered. 'Easy data import' is the primary reason people pick Base 2 over the competition. This page is powered by a knowledgeable community that helps you make an informed decision.
Goodbye SQLite Manager…
Late last year, I discovered that my favorite SQLite GUI was defunct. The SQLite Manager was a plugin for Firefox that allowed you to create and interact with SQLite databases with a simple yet highly functional interface. It had good support for importing and exporting csv files, color coding of cells based on data types, and a convenient feature for cycling back and forth between your SQL statements. Since it was a Firefox plugin it was guaranteed to work on any operating system, and since Firefox is installed on machines across my campus I knew I could rely on it for creating data extracts for students and faculty – I’d package data up in SQLite and send it to them along with a link to the plugin.
Firefox goes through about a million versions a year these days, and after a major upgrade last fall (to Firefox Quantum) most of the existing plugins, including the SQLite Manager, were no longer compatible. An upgrade it highly unlikely, as a few things changed under the hood of Firefox that makes the plugin unusable. While it still works on the Firefox Extended Support Release, in the long run the writing is on the wall.
Hello DB Browser for SQLite!
After searching through many alternatives I discovered the DB Browser for SQLite. It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux and there’s a version for mobile. It was easy to install and has a clean interface. It provides a number of convenient tools and menus that you can use in place of writing SQL DDL, and in some cases it expands the functionality of SQLite by enabling a number of ALTER TABLE commands that are not part of SQLite SQL (like renaming and dropping columns). The Browse Data window makes it easy to quickly thumb through, sort, and filter records and to edit individual values by hand. The Execute SQL window has auto-complete and color-coded syntax, and you can see the database schema in one tab as you write your SQL in another (making it easy to reference table and column names). You can import and export data as CSV (or any delimited text file) or SQL files, and you can save the results of SELECT queries as CSV.
One interesting addition is that there’s actually a Save (Write Changes) and Undo button. So when you create, modify, or drop records, columns, or tables you see the result, but the act isn’t final until you commit the changes. A nice safety feature, especially for db novices.
Execute SQL and View DB Schema
I encountered a few quirks, but nothing insurmountable. I was using the nightly build version without realizing it, and when importing a CSV file the database takes a best guess as to what the data types for the columns should be. Even though the import screen gives you the option to specify that values are quoted, my quoted numeric fields were still saved as numbers and not text. As a result, ID codes like FIPS or ZIP Codes lose their leading zeros and are saved as integers.
The project is managed on github, so I went ahead and posted an issue. The developers were super responsive, and a discussion ensued over whether this behavior was desirable or not. We found two work-arounds. First, if you build an empty table with the desired structure, and then go to import the CSV, if you provide the name of that empty table as the new table name the db will import your data into that table. Alternatively, if I went and downloaded the latest stable release (3.10.1) the default behavior is that all columns are imported as text, which is a safer bet. You can use the GUI to change the types after import. The issue was marked as a bug, and will be addressed in a future release – one possible solution is to provide an option to turn the autodetect feature on (to determine what the types should be) or off (to import everything as text).
The browser also has a feature to attach a database to the current database, but when you do the attachment it appears like nothing happened – you can’t see or browse the objects in database number two. But it IS attached (you can see every statement that’s been executed in a helpful log window) and you can copy a table from one db to the other like this:
You run this within the current database, and database2 is the attached database (when you attach a db you provide an alias for referencing it).
These are minor quibbles. The DB Browser for SQLite is cross-platform, stable, has a clean interface with nice features, and is actively developed by a responsive and friendly team. I’ll be using it for all my SQLite tasks and projects, and will recommend it to others.
Spatialite?
An alternative I considered was to simply use the Spatialite GUI for both regular and spatial databases. It also has a simple, solid, and functional interface and supports spatial SQL, giving you the best of both worlds. So why not? While it works great for my own purposes it’s not something I can recommend to new users who are not GIS folks, either in my work or in the census data book I’m writing. Just figuring out where to download it from the website is overly complex, and while there are binaries for MS Windows there are none for Mac users. You’d have to install it from the source files, which is over the top for novices. Linux users may get lucky and find it in their software repos (it’s included for Debian and Ubuntu). The database browser in QGIS has matured in recent years, so that’s another option for GIS users who want to work with Spatialite or PostGIS.
Now if we only had a good GUI for PostgreSQL… I tried pgAdmin 4 about a year ago, and it was so bad that I’m still clinging to pgAdmin III as long as it still lives. But this is a different story, and one I’ll return to and investigate fully when it comes time to teach my spatial database course next year.
(Please consider sponsoring us on Patreon 😄)
Windows
Our latest release (3.12.0) for Windows:
Note - If for any reason the standard Windows release does not work(e.g. gives an error), try a nightly build (below).
Nightly builds often fix bugs reported after the last release. 😄
macOS
Our latest release (3.12.0) for macOS:
Homebrew
If you prefer using Homebrew for macOS, our latest release can be installed via Homebrew Cask:
Nightly builds
Sqlite Explorer Mac
Download nightly builds for Windows and macOS here:
Linux
DB Browser for SQLite works well on Linux.
Arch Linux
Arch Linux provides an up to date version
Download Db Browser For Sqlite
Install with the following command:
Fedora
Install for Fedora (i386 and x86_64) by issuing the following command:
openSUSE
Debian
Note that Debian focuses more on stability rather than newest features. Therefore packages will typically contain some older version, compared to the latest release.
Update the cache using:
Install the package using:
Ubuntu and Derivatives
Stable release
For Ubuntu and derivaties, @deepsidhu1313provides a PPA with the latest release here:
To add this ppa just type in these commands in terminal:
Then update the cache using:
Install the package using:
Ubuntu 14.04.X, 15.04.X, 15.10.X and 16.04.X are supported for now (untilLaunchpad decides to discontinue building for any series).
Ubuntu Precise (12.04) and Utopic (14.10) are not supported:
- Precise does not have a new enough Qt package in its repository by default,which is a dependency
- Launchpad does not support Utopic any more, which has reached its End ofLife
Nightly builds
Sqlite Browser For Mac Free Download
Nightly builds are available here:
To add this ppa, type these commands into the terminal:
Then update the cache using:
Install the package using:
Other Linux
On others, compile DB4S using the instructionsin BUILDING.md.
FreeBSD
Sqlite Manager For Mac
DB Browser for SQLite works well on FreeBSD, and there is a port for it (thanksto lbartoletti 😄). DB4S can be installedusing either this command:
or this command:
Sqlite Browser Mac Os
Snap packages
Snap Nightlies
Sqlite Database Browser Download
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