How can I analyse a Sqlite query execution?

Question

I have a Sqlite database which I want to check the indexes are correct. MS SQL Analyser is great at breaking down the query execution and utilised indexes.

Is there a similar tool for Sqlite?

Answer 1

I know of no pretty graphical tools, but all of the information you seek is available from the EXPLAIN keyword.

Consider this database:

sqlite> create table users (name, email);
sqlite> create index user_names on users (name);

A query predicated on email will not use an index:

sqlite> explain select * from users where email='foo';
0|Trace|0|0|0||00|
1|String8|0|1|0|foo|00|
2|Goto|0|13|0||00|
3|OpenRead|0|2|0|2|00|
4|Rewind|0|11|0||00|
5|Column|0|1|2||00|
6|Ne|1|10|2|collseq(BINARY)|6a|
7|Column|0|0|4||00|
8|Column|0|1|5||00|
9|ResultRow|4|2|0||00|
10|Next|0|5|0||01|
11|Close|0|0|0||00|
12|Halt|0|0|0||00|
13|Transaction|0|0|0||00|
14|VerifyCookie|0|5|0||00|
15|TableLock|0|2|0|users|00|
16|Goto|0|3|0||00|

Whereas a query predicated on name will use the user_names index:

sqlite> explain select * from users where name='foo';
0|Trace|0|0|0||00|
1|String8|0|1|0|foo|00|
2|Goto|0|18|0||00|
3|OpenRead|0|2|0|2|00|
4|OpenRead|1|3|0|keyinfo(1,BINARY)|00|
5|IsNull|1|15|0||00|
6|Affinity|1|1|0|bb|00|
7|SeekGe|1|15|1|1|00|
8|IdxGE|1|15|1|1|01|
9|IdxRowid|1|2|0||00|
10|Seek|0|2|0||00|
11|Column|1|0|3||00|
12|Column|0|1|4||00|
13|ResultRow|3|2|0||00|
14|Next|1|8|0||00|
15|Close|0|0|0||00|
16|Close|1|0|0||00|
17|Halt|0|0|0||00|
18|Transaction|0|0|0||00|
19|VerifyCookie|0|5|0||00|
20|TableLock|0|2|0|users|00|
21|Goto|0|3|0||00|

Using EXPLAIN does require coming to grips with SQLite's virtual machine, VDBE:

http://www.sqlite.org/vdbe.html

But this is not as hard as it looks, and gives you the complete story about your query.