How to export SQLite file into CSV file in iPhone SDK - iphone

Question

In my app, I want to export a SQLite database file to CSV file..
Could you suggest me how to do this?
Thanks.

Answer 1

First, you'll want to make sure that you're using FMDB to access the database, because people who use the SQLite C API directly in Objective-C are masochists. You can do that like this:
FMDatabase *db = [[FMDatabase alloc] initWithPath:#"/path/to/db/file"];
FMResultSet *results = [db executeQuery:#"SELECT * FROM tableName"];
while([results nextRow]) {
NSDictionary *resultRow = [results resultDict];
NSArray *orderedKeys = [[resultRow allKeys] sortedArrayUsingSelector:#selector(compare:)];
//iterate over the dictionary
}
As for writing to a CSV file, well there's code for that too:
#import "CHCSV.h"
CHCSVWriter * csvWriter = [[CHCSVWriter alloc] initWithCSVFile:#"/path/to/csv/file" atomic:NO];
//write stuff
[csvWriter closeFile];
[csvWriter release];
And to combine them, you'd do:
FMDatabase *db = [[FMDatabase alloc] initWithPath:#"/path/to/db/file"];
if (![db open]) {
//couldn't open the database
[db release];
return nil;
}
FMResultSet *results = [db executeQuery:#"SELECT * FROM tableName"];
CHCSVWriter *csvWriter = [[CHCSVWriter alloc] initWithCSVFile:#"/path/to/csv/file" atomic:NO];
while([results nextRow]) {
NSDictionary *resultRow = [results resultDict];
NSArray *orderedKeys = [[resultRow allKeys] sortedArrayUsingSelector:#selector(compare:)];
//iterate over the dictionary
for (NSString *columnName in orderedKeys) {
id value = [resultRow objectForKey:columnName];
[csvWriter writeField:value];
}
[csvWriter writeLine];
}
[csvWriter closeFile];
[csvWriter release];
[db close];
[db release];
That will write the contents of the tableName table out to a CSV file.

Answer 2

Simply do a SELECT on each table and print out the value of each column as required to a text file.