Introduction to SQLite

Like MySQL, SQLite supports unbuffered queries that can be used to more efficiently retrieve data.

<?php
function check_if_exists($cc)
{
    $result = sqlite_unbuffered_query(
        "SELECT id FROM country_data WHERE cc_code_2='{$cc}'", 
        sqlite_r
    );

    $data = sqlite_fetch_array($result, SQLITE_NUM);
    return $data ? $data[0] : NULL;
}
?>

• 15-30% performance increase depending on the number of rows fetched.

• Data is available right away, don't need to wait for all data to be pre-fetched.

• Lower memory utilization.

• Can only move forward one row at a time.

• Each row can only be accessed once.