From: Tom Cloyd <tomcloyd@...>
Date: 2008-02-21T23:03:24+09:00
Subject: beginner's problem with sqlite3

It would be helpful if the sqlite3-ruby documentation offered one or two 
complete examples, as without these I am unable to figure out several 
syntax questions, so I'm having to guess, and I'm not guessing right.

I'm inputing a simple text file and trying to use it to generate an 
table containing 4 fields (columns). I'm tracking the program with logger.

Here's the table creation code, which I'm not entirely sure is correct, 
but there are no errors produced by it:

db = SQLite3::Database.new( "sqlite-demo.sqlite" )
db.execute( 'CREATE TABLE newsheap (datecol titlecol urlcol summarycol)' )

I then read four physical records into, respectively, variables date, 
title, url, and summary. Then I try to output them to the table with 
this statement, about which I feel even less certain, and it's here that 
the error is produced:

db.execute( 'INSERT INTO newsheap(datecol titlecol urlcol summarycol) 
VALUES(date title url summary)' )

The logger output this produces:
E, [2008-02-21T05:52:45.358561 #11133] ERROR -- : near "titlecol": 
syntax error

I've spent hours trying many variations to probe the syntax, and I keep 
getting the same error.

I keep thinking that I'm somehow not being clear to ruby, in the 
transition between ruby variables and variables in the sql statement, 
but I cannot find the problem. For now, I'm stumped. Any help would be 
appreciated.

Tom