In-Memory Databases

In-Memory Databases

An SQLite database is normally stored in a single ordinary disk file. However, in certain circumstances, the database might be stored in memory.

The most common way to force an SQLite database to exist purely in memory is to open the database using the special filename ":memory:". In other words, instead of passing the name of a real disk file into one of the sqlite3_open(), sqlite3_open16(), or sqlite3_open_v2() functions, pass in the string ":memory:". For example:

rc = sqlite3_open(":memory:", &db);

When this is done, no disk file is opened. Instead, a new database is created purely in memory. The database ceases to exist as soon as the database connection is closed. Every :memory: database is distinct from every other. So, opening two database co