dbCopyTable: Copy a table from one SQLite database to another

In RSQLite.toolkit: Load Data in SQLite from Tabular Files

Copy a table from one SQLite database to another

Description

The dbCopyTable() function can be used to create a copy of the data in a table of a SQLite database in another database. The data can be appended to an already existing table (with the same name of the source one), or a new table can be created. It is possible to move also the indexes from source to target.

Usage

dbCopyTable(
  db_file_src,
  db_file_tgt,
  table_name,
  drop_table = FALSE,
  copy_indexes = FALSE
)

Arguments

db_file_src	character, the file name (including path) of the source database containing the table to be copied.
db_file_tgt	character, the file name (including path) of the target database where the table will be copied.
table_name	character, the table name.
drop_table	logical, if TRUE the table in the target database will be dropped (if exists) before copying the data. If FALSE, the data will be appended to an existing table in the target database. Defaults to FALSE.
copy_indexes	logical, if TRUE and also drop_table is TRUE, all indexes defined on the source table will be created on the target table. Defaults to FALSE.

Value

nothing

Examples

db_source <- tempfile(fileext = ".sqlite")
db_target <- tempfile(fileext = ".sqlite")

# Load some sample data
dbcon <- dbConnect(RSQLite::SQLite(), db_source)

data_path <- system.file("extdata", package = "RSQLite.toolkit")
dbTableFromDSV(
  input_file = file.path(data_path, "abalone.csv"),
  dbcon = dbcon,
  table_name = "ABALONE",
  drop_table = TRUE,
  auto_pk = TRUE,
  header = TRUE,
  sep = ",",
  dec = "."
)

dbDisconnect(dbcon)

# Copy the table to a new database, recreating it 
# if it already exists and copying indexes
dbCopyTable(
  db_file_src = db_source, 
  db_file_tgt = db_target,
  table_name = "ABALONE",
  drop_table = TRUE,        # Recreate table if it exists
  copy_indexes = TRUE       # Copy indexes too
)

# Check that the table was copied correctly
dbcon_tgt <- dbConnect(RSQLite::SQLite(), db_target)
print(dbListTables(dbcon_tgt))
print(dbListFields(dbcon_tgt, "ABALONE"))
print(dbGetQuery(dbcon_tgt, "SELECT COUNT(*) AS TOTAL_ROWS FROM ABALONE;"))
dbDisconnect(dbcon_tgt)

# Clean up temporary database files
unlink(c(db_source, db_target))

RSQLite.toolkit documentation built on Sept. 2, 2026, 9:06 a.m.