SQLite shell: .schema

The SQLite shell command .schema dumps an SQLite database's schema.

.schema %pattern% dumps the tables that match %pattern%.

.schema prints the SQL statement that was used to create a table or view. Thus, the output might be somewhat hard to read, especially if one simply wants to query a table's or view's column names and types.

In such a case, the alternative pragma table_info('<table name>') does exactly that.

create table tab_one (
   col_1  integer,
   col_2  text,
   col_3  text
);

create table tab_two (
   v1,
   v2
);

create table tab_three (
   c1    integer primary key,
   c2    text
);

create index ix_tab_two on tab_two(v2);

.schema
--
-- CREATE TABLE tab_one (
--    col_1  integer,
--    col_2  text,
--    col_3  text
-- );
-- CREATE TABLE tab_two (
--    v1,
--    v2
-- );
-- CREATE TABLE tab_three (
--    c1    integer primary key,
--    c2    text
-- );
-- CREATE INDEX ix_tab_two on tab_two(v2);

.schema tab_two
--
-- CREATE TABLE tab_two (
--    v1,
--    v2
-- );
-- CREATE INDEX ix_tab_two on tab_two(v2);

.schema %tab_t%
--
-- CREATE TABLE tab_two (
--    v1,
--    v2
-- );
-- CREATE TABLE tab_three (
--    c1    integer primary key,
--    c2    text
-- );
-- CREATE INDEX ix_tab_two on tab_two(v2);