SQLite is a simple, small, fast, reliable, server-less, zero-configuration and no-installation SQL database library which is running in-process with the client application. Although there is no official JDBC driver library from www.sqlite.org, there is one provided by www.xerial.org – an XML Database Management System project.

 

1. Download SQLite JDBC driver

You can download the latest version of JDBC driver for SQLite here. The download is categorized by versions, so browse a directory for a specific version you want: 3.5.9, 3.6.16, 3.7.2, etc. As of this writing, the latest version is 3.7.2 which corresponds to the jar file sqlite-jdbc-3.7.2.jar.

Beside Java class files, the jar file includes SQLite binaries for Windows, Linux and Mac (for both 32-bit and 64-bit).

Place the sqlite-jdbc-VERSION.jar into your classpath.

2. SQLite JDBC database connection URL

The SQLite JDBC driver can load a SQLite database from file system or creates one in memory.

Here is the syntax of database connection URL for file system database:

jdbc:sqlite:database_file_path

Where database_file_path can be either relative or absolute path. For example:

jdbc:sqlite:product.db

jdbc:sqlite:C:/work/product.db

And here is the syntax of database connection URL for memory database:

jdbc:sqlite::memory:

jdbc:sqlite:

3. Loading SQLite JDBC driver

With this SQLite JDBC library, you have to load the driver as follows: 

Class.forName("org.sqlite.JDBC");

Or: 

DriverManager.registerDriver(new org.sqlite.JDBC());

 

4. Making SQLite JDBC connection

The following example program creates a connection to a SQLite database file product.db which is in the same directory as the program, prints some database metadata information, and closes the connection:

package net.codejava.jdbc;

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DatabaseMetaData;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.SQLException;

/**
 * This program demonstrates making JDBC connection to a SQLite database.
 * @author www.codejava.net
 *
 */
public class JdbcSQLiteConnection {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		try {
			Class.forName("org.sqlite.JDBC");
			String dbURL = "jdbc:sqlite:product.db";
			Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection(dbURL);
			if (conn != null) {
				System.out.println("Connected to the database");
				DatabaseMetaData dm = (DatabaseMetaData) conn.getMetaData();
				System.out.println("Driver name: " + dm.getDriverName());
				System.out.println("Driver version: " + dm.getDriverVersion());
				System.out.println("Product name: " + dm.getDatabaseProductName());
				System.out.println("Product version: " + dm.getDatabaseProductVersion());
				conn.close();
			}
		} catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) {
			ex.printStackTrace();
		} catch (SQLException ex) {
			ex.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
}

That's Java code example to establish connection to a SQLite database.

To see the coding in action, I recommend you to watch the video below:

 

JDBC API References:

• DriverManager Class Javadoc
• Connection Interface Javadoc

 

Related JDBC Tutorials:

• JDBC CRUD Tutorial
• JDBC Transaction Tutorial
• How to Read Database Meta Data in JDBC
• How to call stored procedure with JDBC