Question

Taken straight off of SQLite’s site “The value is a signed integer, stored in 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 8 bytes depending on the magnitude of the value.”

Does this mean that if you have 1 value that requires 8 bytes, ALL values in that column will be treated as 8 bytes. Or, if the rest are all 1 byte, and one value is 8 bytes, will only that value be using 8 bytes and the rest will remain at 1?

I’m more used to SQL in which you specify the integer size accordingly.

I know the question seems trivial, but based on the answer will determine how I handle a piece of the database.

Answer 1

The sqlite database structure is different in the way it handles data types. Each field can have a different type…

Here is the documentation from sqlite:

Most SQL database engines use static typing. A datatype is associated with each column
in a table and only values of that particular datatype are allowed to be stored in that
column. SQLite relaxes this restriction by using manifest typing. In manifest typing, the
datatype is a property of the value itself, not of the column in which the value is
stored. SQLite thus allows the user to store any value of any datatype into any column
regardless of the declared type of that column. (There are some exceptions to this rule:
An INTEGER PRIMARY KEY column may only store integers. And SQLite attempts to coerce
values into the declared datatype of the column when it can.)