Comment by simonw

For anyone who needs to implement the 12 step procedure (https://www.sqlite.org/lang_altertable.html#otheralter) from the SQLite documentation for applying complex alters, I've built a CLI tool and Python library that can apply that for you.

CLI example: https://sqlite-utils.datasette.io/en/stable/cli.html#cli-tra...

    sqlite-utils transform fixtures.db roadside_attractions \
      --rename pk id \
      --default name Untitled \
      --type longitude float \
      --type latitude float \
      --drop address

Python example: https://sqlite-utils.datasette.io/en/stable/python-api.html#...

    table.tranform(
        rename={"pk":"id"},
        defaults={"name": "Untitled"},
        types={
            "latitude": float,
            "longitude": float
        },
        drop={"address"}
    )

Wrote more about those here: https://simonwillison.net/2020/Sep/23/sqlite-advanced-alter-...

(Just noticed this is already mentioned at the bottom of the blog entry!)