SQLite Insert very slow ??

Question

I recently read about SQLite and thought i would give a try . But when i see insert 1 record it was okay . But when i was inserting 100 it takes 5 sec and as the record size increases and so the time . What could be wrong . i am SQLite Wrapper (system.data.SQlite)

code sample

dbcon = new SQLiteConnection(connectionString);
dbcon.Open();

//---INSIDE LOOP

 SQLiteCommand sqlComm = new SQLiteCommand(sqlQuery, dbcon);

 nRowUpdatedCount = sqlComm.ExecuteNonQuery(); 

//---END LOOP

dbcon.close();

Answer 1

Wrap BEGIN \ END statements around your bulk inserts. Sqlite is optimized for transactions.

dbcon = new SQLiteConnection(connectionString);
dbcon.Open();

SQLiteCommand sqlComm;
sqlComm = new SQLiteCommand("begin", dbcon);
sqlComm.ExecuteNonQuery(); 
//---INSIDE LOOP

 sqlComm = new SQLiteCommand(sqlQuery, dbcon);

 nRowUpdatedCount = sqlComm.ExecuteNonQuery(); 

//---END LOOP
sqlComm = new SQLiteCommand("end", dbcon);
sqlComm.ExecuteNonQuery(); 
dbcon.close();

Answer 2

Try wrapping all of your inserts (aka, a bulk insert) into a single transaction:

string insertString = "INSERT INTO [TableName] ([ColumnName]) Values (@value)";

SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand();
command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@value", value);
command.CommandText = insertString;
command.Connection = dbConnection;
SQLiteTransaction transaction = dbConnection.BeginTransaction();
try
{
    //---INSIDE LOOP
    SQLiteCommand sqlComm = new SQLiteCommand(sqlQuery, dbcon);
    nRowUpdatedCount = sqlComm.ExecuteNonQuery(); 
    //---END LOOP

    transaction.Commit();
    return true;
}
catch (SQLiteException ex)
{
    transaction.Rollback();
}

By default, SQLite wraps every inserts in a transaction, which slows down the process:

INSERT is really slow - I can only do few dozen INSERTs per second

Actually, SQLite will easily do 50,000 or more INSERT statements per second on an average desktop computer. But it will only do a few dozen transactions per second.

Transaction speed is limited by disk drive speed because (by default) SQLite actually waits until the data really is safely stored on the disk surface before the transaction is complete. That way, if you suddenly lose power or if your OS crashes, your data is still safe. For details, read about atomic commit in SQLite..

By default, each INSERT statement is its own transaction. But if you surround multiple INSERT statements with BEGIN...COMMIT then all the inserts are grouped into a single transaction. The time needed to commit the transaction is amortized over all the enclosed insert statements and so the time per insert statement is greatly reduced.