Understanding SQLite Primary Keys
- It is mandatory to have at least a basic understanding of how SQLite uses primary keys before discussing the process of resetting primary key sequences.
- In SQLite, primary keys may be INTEGER PRIMARY KEY or INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT. It provides the instances an incremental value for the key field assigned automatically on inserting a new row into the table.
- When a row is deleted from a table in SQLite the previously used primary key value is not re-used by default. This behavior hence guarantees the referential integrity and also fixes potential conflicts of data that may arise.
- On the other hand, this may cause some tables not to have sequential primary key values because of the gaps in the sequence, so they will become out of sync with the actual number of rows in a table.
How to Reset SQLite Primary Key Sequence When it Falls Out of Sync?
SQLite is one of the most popular embedded database engines which uses primary keys to distinguish among different records saved in a table. However, the primary key field could become unstable as a result, the data integrity might be threatened and the functionality of the application could fail.
In case such a scenario occurs, it is important to clear out the primary key sequence to be synchronized. In this article, We will learn about How to reset SQLite primary key sequence when it falls out of sync by considering various methods along with the examples and so on.