How to Import SQLite Database into MS SQL Server Using ODBC (Step-by-Step Guide)

-

This guide explains how to connect a SQLite database file to Microsoft SQL Server using an ODBC driver and Linked Server configuration. The same ODBC DSN can also be used to open the database in MS Access.

Overview

The core requirement is creating a System DSN using a SQLite ODBC driver. Once configured, SQL Server can access the SQLite file through a Linked Server.

Step 1 — Install SQLite ODBC Driver

Download and install the appropriate version (match SQL Server bitness):

http://www.ch-werner.de/sqliteodbc/

Step 2 — Create a System DSN

Open ODBC Data Source Administrator:

  • 64-bit: C:\Windows\System32\odbcad32.exe
  • 32-bit: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe

Create a System DSN and select “SQLite3 ODBC Driver”.

Important: Do NOT use spaces in the DSN name. SQL queries against Linked Servers may fail if spaces are used.

Step 3 — Create a Linked Server in SQL Server

Run the following in SQL Server Management Studio:

EXEC sp_addlinkedserver
    @server = 'SQLite_Linked',
    @srvproduct = '',
    @provider = 'MSDASQL',
    @datasrc = 'SQLite_DSN_Name';

Enable RPC options:

EXEC sp_serveroption 'SQLite_Linked', 'rpc', true;
EXEC sp_serveroption 'SQLite_Linked', 'rpc out', true;

Step 4 — Query SQLite Tables

SELECT *
FROM OPENQUERY(SQLite_Linked, 'SELECT * FROM your_table');

Opening the Same Database in MS Access

You can also open the SQLite file via:

Access → External Data → ODBC Database → Link to Data Source → Select the System DSN.

Known Issue with Access Export

Although the database can be opened in MS Access, exporting data from Access to SQL Server may fail because column metadata is not always detected correctly through ODBC.

Recommended Tool for Browsing SQLite Files

DB Browser for SQLite

Summary

Reliable workflow:

  • Install SQLite ODBC driver
  • Create System DSN
  • Create SQL Server Linked Server
  • Use OPENQUERY to import data

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shrinking node_modules for AWS Lambda (My First “npm shock” and a Practical Fix)

-
Image
I’m a newbie in Node.js and not really familiar with the whole npm ecosystem. I honestly didn’t expect that a single npm install would explode into ~10MB spread across ~30 different folders. After a few minutes of staring at it, I realized what’s actually inside those folders: not just runtime code. What shocked me Inside node_modules you get everything: README files source files tests examples docs And then the next level of madness: modules inside modules . Duplicated dependencies nested multiple levels deep (e.g. inherits , core-util-is , tedious …), even if they already exist elsewhere in the project tree. Here’s a typical example: I’m in node_modules → package bl , and there’s another node_modules folder inside it, plus test , README and other “junk”… all for a ~10KB JS file. The obvious assumption (that turned out wrong) Once I accepted the chaos, I assumed there must be a “build for production” command that would “compile” depende...
Read more

Decimal number issue from server to client. Wow! Didn't expect this @_@

-
Image
Chapter 17   where a poor Decimal Number came from Server Side to JavaScript I worked on a page for days, adjusting the UI with CSS and HTML. Everything looked fine… until I started testing multi-lingual support. English — OK. Spanish — OK. Chinese — OK. Even right-to-left Hebrew (crooked and askew, but working). But Russian? Nope. In Russian the page stopped working completely: only static texts and images were visible. Nothing dynamic rendered. Of course it was a JavaScript error. Firefox DevTools showed this: That error led me to this JS code: I stared at those lines and saw nothing wrong — no missing variables, no typos, nothing obvious. I went to the original project code to find the exact non-rendered rows and noticed a server variable embedded into the client-side script: Which naturally led me to the server-side C# code responsible for generating that value: Nothing looked wrong there either. So I did what every developer does in ...
Read more