SpatiaLite Quickstart

SpatiaLite is an SQLite database engine with spatial functions added.

This Quick Start describes how to open a database with the command line and the GUI application.

Running spatialite

• Open a console and open a sample database with spatialite:

  spatialite /home/user/data/spatialite/trento.sqlite
  

• Helpful commands in the CLI interface:

  .help
  .tables
  .quit

• Some sample spatial queries:

  SELECT lc.NOME, lc.NOME_PROV, lc.COM, mh.Perimeter
       FROM LocalCouncils AS lc, MunicipalHalls AS mh
       WHERE CONTAINS(lc.Geometry,mh.Geometry) AND lc.NOME LIKE 'VILLA%'
       ORDER BY lc.NOME;
  .headers ON
  SELECT COMUNE, LOCALITA, Area(Geometry)/1000000 AS "Area Sq.km."
       FROM PopulatedPlaces ORDER BY "Area Sq.km." DESC LIMIT 10 ;
  SELECT lc.NOME AS "Provence Name", X(mh.Geometry) AS X_COORD, Y(mh.Geometry) AS Y_COORD
       FROM LocalCouncils AS lc, MunicipalHalls AS mh
       WHERE mh.COMU=lc.COM ORDER BY "Provence Name" LIMIT 10;

Create a new database with spatialite-gui

• From the Databases folder on the Desktop, Start spatialite_gui
• Select File ‣ Creating a new SQLite DB
• Click Browse and go to the /home/user/data/spatialite/ directory. Enter a name such as “Test.sqlite” and click Save.

Open an existing database with spatialite-gui

• Click the “Disconnecting current SQLite DB” button

• Click the “Connect existing SQLite DB” button

• Browse to the /home/user/data/spatialite directory and choose trento.sqlite

• Right click on the MunicipalHallsView table and select “Show Columns”

• Right Click on the PopulatedPlaces table and select “Edit table rows”

• In the upper SQL pane type:

  SELECT NOME, X(Geometry) AS Longitude, Y(Geometry) AS Latitude
       FROM "MunicipalHallsView"
       WHERE NOME_PROV LIKE "BRESCIA";

  and click the “Execute SQL” button at the right

Running spatialite-gis

• From the Desktop GIS folder on the Desktop run spatialite-gis
• Click the “Connecting existing SQLite DB” button and connect to /home/user/data/spatialite/trento.sqlite

You should see a map of Trento Provence in Italy

• Right click on the Highways layer and select Hide
• Right Click on the LocalCouncilsTrento layer and select Layer Configuration->Classify and choose “Shape Area” for the column. Select 4 Classes and click on the Min and Max color patches to choose a dark and light color. Now click to see a Choropleth display of the provence areas.
• Change border color by right click on LocalCouncils and select Layer configuration->Graphics and select a different color under Border Graphics.
• Zoom in slightly. Right click on the PopulatedPlaces layer and select Indentify on. Now click on one of the Populated Places to see the attributes for that feature.

Things to Try

Here are some additional challenges for you to try:

• Inspect geometries with spatialite-gui
• Open and edit SpatiaLite layers in QGIS

What Next?

To learn more about SpatiaLite, a starting point is the SpatiaLite project page.

and be sure to visit the tutorial Spatialite cookbook