sqlite-utils insert: options for column types

The insert command currently results in string types for every column - at least when used against CSV or TSV inputs.

It would be useful if you could do the following:

• automatically detects the column types based on eg the first 1000 records
• explicitly state the rule for specific columns

--detect-types could work for the former - or it could do that by default and allow opt-out using --no-detect-types

For specific columns maybe this:

sqlite-utils insert db.db images images.tsv \
  --tsv \
  -c id int \
  -c score float

[simonw]

If -c isn’t available, maybe -t or --type would work for specifying column types:

sqlite-utils insert db.db images images.tsv \
  --tsv \
  --type id int \
  --type score float

or

sqlite-utils insert db.db images images.tsv \
  --tsv \
  -t id int \
  -t score float

[eyeseast]

Just ran into this issue last night. I have a big table that’s mostly numbers, but also a zip code column in a state where ZIP codes start with 0. Would be great to run something like this:

sqlite-utils insert data.db places file.csv --csv --detect-types --type zipcode text

Maybe I’ll take a crack at this one.