Syntax error when loading from file

Question

I execute: sqlite3 -init mydata.sql mydb with the following as the only line in mydata.sql:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS [Album];

I get the following error:

Error: near line 1: near "∩╗┐DROP": syntax error

I've whittled the input file to virtually nothing and I always get this syntax error message no matter what command I enter and always on line 1. It looks like it thinks there's some unusual character but I can's see what it could be. Any thoughts?

@tripleee Good call. My SQL script was in UTF-8 and no unexpected unprintable characters were showing up (see harsh's answer) but I was still getting the error until I changed the encoding to UTF-8 without the byte order mark. — spaaarky21
– spaaarky21, Commented Jun 6, 2014 at 0:00

harsh · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-08 05:57:33Z

6

If you use Notepad++ or other similar text editor, enable showing all symbol.

In Notepad++, view->show symbol->Show All characters

Also check Encoding of this file (Menu->Encoding). You might want to forcefully change encoding to ANSI/UTF-8 (Menu->Encoding->Convert to ANSI).

answered Dec 8, 2011 at 5:57

harsh

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Liviu · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-25 07:20:31Z

1

I had the same error with the Chinook database and SQLite version 3.19.3, so I opened the SQL file (Chinook_Sqlite_AutoIncrementPKs.sql) with Sublime Text and save it like UTF-8 (to eliminate the BOM indicator).

answered Jul 25, 2017 at 7:20

Liviu

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