If you’re getting an error that reads “Parse error: all VALUES must have the same number of terms” in SQLite when using the VALUES clause as a stand alone statement, it’s probably because you’re not providing the same number of columns in all rows.
When we use VALUES to create a constant table, we must provide the same number of columns in each row.
To fix this issue, be sure to provide the same number of columns across all rows.
If you’ve ever used the VALUES clause as a stand alone statement, you may have noticed that SQLite provides default column names for the results. SQLite conveniently names them column1, column2, and so on.
However as convenient as this is, you might want to provide names that are more meaningful.
Fortunately there’s an easy way to do that.
If you’re getting an error that reads ‘Parse error: near “ORDER”‘ in SQLite, it could be that you’re trying to use the ORDER BY clause when using the VALUES clause as a stand alone statement.
Although we can certainly use the VALUES clause as a stand alone SQL statement, we can’t apply the ORDER BY clause against it.
However all is not lost. Below is an example of how we can sort the results of the VALUES statement.
Some database management systems, including SQLite, allow us to use the VALUES keyword as a stand alone SQL statement. So we can use VALUES to return a constant table, usually with less code than would be required if we were to use the SELECT statement.
The following examples demonstrate how.
The SQLite changes() function returns the number of database rows that were changed, inserted or deleted by the most recently completed INSERT, DELETE, or UPDATE statement, exclusive of statements in lower-level triggers.
Basically, it allows us to see how many rows are affected when we run any of those statements.
In SQLite, ABS() is a built-in scalar function that returns the absolute value of its argument.
The absolute value is the non-negative equivalent of the argument. It can be thought of as the distance from zero that the number resides on the number line, without considering direction.
When working with SQL, we can use the INSERT statement to insert a new row into a table. But what if we want to insert more than one row?
Fortunately, we can still use the INSERT statement. Below is a quick example that inserts multiple rows using SQL.
If you’re not sure if a table has a generated column in SQLite, you can quickly find out with either the .schema command, or by querying the sqlite_schema table.