How do you programmatically create an empty database?

[Peter Haworth]

Hmm, well I seem to remember early in this thread some caustic remarks  
about the IT department - maybe they earn their money after all!

Pete Haworth

On Nov 23, 2010, at 4:37 PM, Bob Sneidar wrote:

> Actually, this is one of the things about SQL that you have to think  
> about if you are going to use it. If you are not going to use a file  
> based SQL like sqLite, you will need some kind of tool that can  
> connect to an SQL server and create a database for you. You have to  
> have at least one table with one field. Once you have that you can  
> create more tables, add fields, the works.
>
> MySQL has some tools you can download for free, called  
> MySqlWorkbench (Mac only I think and you can google to find it).  
> There are other tools you can buy for not too much money, like  
> Navicat. While you CAN get a shell, connect to the server and create  
> an database using some commands, I would not recommend this method  
> for anyone who was not already familiar with working with SQL  
> databases in this fashion.
>
> The next thing you need to do is find some kind of SQL primer, so  
> that you can begin to get familiar with syntax. No matter what you  
> do, you are going to at least need to get some basics under your  
> belt. After that I highly recommend Trevor Devore's sqlYoga, which  
> is a utility which hides most of the real grunt work in connecting  
> to and accessing SQL databases. Even that has a learning curve, but  
> it shields you (for the most part) from the actual syntax, and I  
> believe it "escapes" your data for you.
>
> Just a heads up on that, lets say you wanted to insert a record, and  
> populate the columns with some data. The syntax might be:
>
> INSERT INTO example (name, age) VALUES('Timmy Mellowman', '23')
>
> But what if your data contained commas or carriage returns? You can  
> see that the SQL syntax USES those things, so a comma in your query  
> string in the wrong place would wreak havoc and you would get an  
> error. Escaping the values replaces such reserved characters with  
> something else, so that doesn't happen. SqlYoga does this for you  
> (if I am not mistaken).
>
> Now sqLite is much easier. You just need to call revOpenDatabase,  
> and specify the path to the database, and if it doesn't exist, it  
> will create one for you:
>
> get revOpenDatabase("sqlite", "C:/testdbsqlite.db", , , , )
>
> After that you can begin to add columns and what have you using some  
> of the other commands available to you (see built in dictionary).  
> It's easier, but there are some caveats to sqLite, such as the kind  
> of columns and indexes you cannot add after the database is created.
>
>
> Bob
>
>
> On Nov 23, 2010, at 1:46 PM, Jonathan Lynch wrote:
>
>> Honestly, I am still just trying to get my head around using  
>> databases.
>>
>> I use Rev for processing text in all sorts of creative ways at work  
>> - vastly
>> increases our productivity - but, I know next to nothing about  
>> database use.
>>
>> The logical process, to me, would be the following:
>>
>> - Create database file
>> - Populate it with columns
>> - Set up my application to use an embedded database app to write and
>> retrieve data as needed
>>
>> Say, for example, if I wanted to experiment with Valentina (knowing  
>> that the
>> demo version only lasts 10 minutes before the app has to be  
>> restarted). I
>> could not fool around with it, without having an existing file to  
>> work with.
>>
>> So, I thought to myself, my first step must be to create a database  
>> file. I
>> am not committed to doing it in a script, I just don't know how  
>> else to
>> access the embedded database driver functionalities.
>>
>> Should I just find a blank database file somewhere on the web and  
>> download
>> it?
>
>
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