Opening database file from within SQLite command-line shell

You can attach one and even more databases and work with it in the same way like using sqlite dbname.db

sqlite3
:
sqlite> attach "mydb.sqlite" as db1;

and u can see all attached databases with .databases

where in normal way the main is used for the command-line db

.databases
seq  name             file                                                      
---  ---------------  ----------------------------------------------------------
0    main                                                                       
1    temp                                                                       
2    ttt              c:\home\user\gg.ite                                   

I think the simplest way to just open a single database and start querying is:

sqlite> .open "test.db"
sqlite> SELECT * FROM table_name ... ;

Notice: This works only for versions 3.8.2+


The command within the Sqlite shell to open a database is .open

The syntax is,

sqlite> .open dbasename.db

If it is a new database that you would like to create and open, it is

sqlite> .open --new dbasename.db

If the database is existing in a different folder, the path has to be mentioned like this:

sqlite> .open D:/MainFolder/SubFolder/...database.db

In Windows Command shell, you should use '\' to represent a directory, but in SQLite directories are represented by '/'. If you still prefer to use the Windows notation, you should use an escape sequence for every '\'