Pipe sqlite-utils in-memory db to datasette?

[nielsbom]

1. sqlite-utils memory creates a query-able in-memory sqlite database.
2. I think the datasette command can connect to an in-memory database.

Would it be possible to pipe (or otherwise connect) the sqlite-utils in-memory database into datasette?

[nielsbom]

For people wanting the same thing: I've created this Fish-shell script to get a single-command datasette-view on a .csv

function explore_csv
  sqlite-utils insert data.db dbname $argv[1] --csv
  datasette serve data.db -o
  rm data.db 
end

[simonw]

This is a really interesting idea! I don't think it's possible to do this, because the in-memory database exists inside the sqlite-utils process which means a separate Datasette process would be unable to see it.

I'm really interested in making it easier to explore things like CSV files using Datasette without having to first write a SQLite database file to disk though.

Datasette Desktop can do this right now - it has a "open CSV" option which opens the CSV directly into an in-memory database so you can start browsing it.

I also have a concept for a datasette insert mechanism, which would allow direct imports of formats such as CSV and would let plugins extend that to other formats as well. It's still mostly just a concept though.

[nielsbom]

Thanks for replying.

I'll keep an eye out for updates and will keep using my shell script for now, it works pretty well :-)

[plpxsk]

My data too is often a CSV, or a collection of CSVs, which I want to visualize with datasette.

The first step though is always to run csvs-to-sqlite.

I think something like datasette file.csv or datasette folder_of_csvs would be neat to have, for those of us who start with CSVs