SQlite extension name

Question

I know there is no specific naming convention but what extension do you recommend when using SQlite?

The most common appears to be .sqlite, .db or .db3? .sqlite makes most sense but is it just down to personal choice?

Answer 1

Pretty much down to personal choice. It may make sense to use an extension based on the database scheme you are storing; treat your database schema as a file format, with SQLite simply being an encoding used for that file format. So, you might use .bookmarks if it's storing bookmarks, or .index if it's being used as an index.

If you want to use a generic extension, I'd use .sqlite3 since that is most descriptive of what version of SQLite is needed to work with the database.

Answer 2

SQLite doesn't define any particular extension for this, it's your own choice. Personally, I name them with the .sqlite extension, just so there isn't any ambiguity when I'm looking at my files later.

Answer 3

In distributable software, I dont want my customers mucking about in the database by themselves. The program reads and writes it all by itself. The only reason for a user to touch the DB file is to take a backup copy. Therefore I have named it whatever_records.db

The simple .db extension tells the user that it is a binary data file and that's all they have to know. Calling it .sqlite invites the interested user to open it up and mess something up!

Totally depends on your usage scenario I suppose.

Answer 4

I don't think it really matters, as long as it makes sense to you and other people that need to use the database.

If ".sdjaopih" says "Hey this is a sqlite database file that stores " to everybody that needs to use it, then so be it.

That said, it should make sense for a reason, not because you tell everybody else that ".sdjaopih" is a sqlite database file.