I'm looking for a simple to use **data entry** tool to use with
(mostly) sqlite3 databases.

There are several quite good database management programs available
(e.g. sqlitebrowser) and anyway the sqlite3 command line program is
quite adequate for most of my dataase management needs. What I can't
find anywhere is a good way to enter data into tables.

A GUI tool is probably better but I'm prepared to try anything.
Programs like sqlitebrowser have ways to enter data but they aren't
that easy to use and they are buried down in the menu system. I want a
program where I can just say 'sqledit <database> <tablename>' and be
presented with a data grid where I can edit the data.

The program visidata is the nearest thing to what I want that I have
found so far. However it's quite complex to learn, partly because
it's a command line program and partly because it works with lots of
different data formats. If I can't find anything else I may persevere
with visidata.

Another possible approach is to use a spreadsheet (e.g. libreoffice
calc) as they provide **exactly** what I want for data entry and
editing. The trouble is that it isn't entirely straightforward getting
data from a sqlite3 database into and out of the spreadsheet.


Can anyone suggest anything that might provide what I want? It
doesn't absolutely **have** to work with sqlite3, I'm prepared to move
to mariadb or postgresql if necessary (though I'd prefer not to).

I don't mind either a desktop program or a web application.

--
Chris Green
ú

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Hello,

for a GUI tool to enter SQLITE table values, *perhaps* (just a
suggestion, I 've never done that) look at libreoffice-base with its
suggested (but mandatory in this case) unixodbc dependency

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Wed, 1 Apr 2026 11:10:06 +0200
didier gaumet <didier.gaumet@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello,

for a GUI tool to enter SQLITE table values, *perhaps* (just a
suggestion, I 've never done that) look at libreoffice-base with its suggested (but mandatory in this case) unixodbc dependency

I hope that's improved *a lot* in the last few years. I found it almost unusable, and the ODBC implementation was disastrous. At least it then
acquired native MySQL abilities, but it was still pretty buggy, and the
report writer only worked on alternate months. I just went away and
started writing my own PHP data access software.

Here's another possibility: I have used HeidiSQL with MySQL on Windows
years ago, and found it very good. At the time there was no Linux
version. There is now, and it allegedly also works with SQLite.

https://www.heidisql.com/

Disclaimer: I've just found out there is a Linux version and installed
the .deb, then tried it on one of my MariaDB databases, no obvious
instant problems, but I wouldn't endorse it fully without using it for
several months without incident. Yes, I do have regular backups, and
daily backups of the databases I actively use at the moment.

--
Joe

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

didier gaumet <didier.gaumet@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello,

for a GUI tool to enter SQLITE table values, *perhaps* (just a
suggestion, I 've never done that) look at libreoffice-base with its suggested (but mandatory in this case) unixodbc dependency

I think I have looked at this before and found that the issue is that
there's a whole raft of menus to fight through to get to the point
where one is editing a database table. Unlike libreoffice-calc where
you can actually enter 'localc <filename>' and get straight into data
entry.

I will take another look though, thanks.

--
Chris Green
ú

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Joe <joe@jretrading.com> wrote:

On Wed, 1 Apr 2026 11:10:06 +0200
didier gaumet <didier.gaumet@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello,

for a GUI tool to enter SQLITE table values, *perhaps* (just a
suggestion, I 've never done that) look at libreoffice-base with its suggested (but mandatory in this case) unixodbc dependency

I hope that's improved *a lot* in the last few years. I found it almost unusable, and the ODBC implementation was disastrous. At least it then acquired native MySQL abilities, but it was still pretty buggy, and the report writer only worked on alternate months. I just went away and
started writing my own PHP data access software.

Here's another possibility: I have used HeidiSQL with MySQL on Windows
years ago, and found it very good. At the time there was no Linux
version. There is now, and it allegedly also works with SQLite.

https://www.heidisql.com/

Disclaimer: I've just found out there is a Linux version and installed
the .deb, then tried it on one of my MariaDB databases, no obvious
instant problems, but I wouldn't endorse it fully without using it for several months without incident. Yes, I do have regular backups, and
daily backups of the databases I actively use at the moment.

But HeidiSQL is just another database **management** program.

I just installed it and it took me ages to actually get to view the
data in my database, lots of clicks and selects were involved. While
it has command line parameters to bypass some of these it's still
quite clumsy getting to the actual data grid display.

The display formatting is a bit creaky on my (big) screen too, it
doesn't seem to have scaled very well.

--
Chris Green
ú

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

didier gaumet <didier.gaumet@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello,

for a GUI tool to enter SQLITE table values, *perhaps* (just a
suggestion, I 've never done that) look at libreoffice-base with its suggested (but mandatory in this case) unixodbc dependency

Unlike localc that doesn't allow me to specify enough on the command
line to get to where I want to without lots of clicking an selecting.

--
Chris Green
ú

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Hi,

Reading the other suggestions and your replies I don't think you're
going to find anything; you're mostly not happy that the suggestions are
too complicated, but databases *are* complicated and they're also very
generic in order to cover many use cases.

Ultimately if you want something direct and bespoke to the data you need
to manage, I think you're going to have to build an application for it.

However?

On Wed, Apr 01, 2026 at 08:45:48AM +0100, Chris Green wrote:

Can anyone suggest anything that might provide what I want? It
doesn't absolutely **have** to work with sqlite3, I'm prepared to move
to mariadb or postgresql if necessary (though I'd prefer not to).

If you are familiar with phpmyadmin and phppgadmin then there is also a phpliteadmin for SQLite, and it's packaged in Debian. I haven't tried
it myself. If it's anything like the other two it will need quite a bit
of setup.

Thanks,
Andy

--
https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

01.04.26, 09:45 +0100, Chris Green:

I'm looking for a simple to use **data entry** tool to use with
(mostly) sqlite3 databases.

Take a look at LibreOffice Base.
To connect SQLite-DBs to it, you'll probably have to set up ODBC, though.

--
Regards
mks

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Wed, 1 Apr 2026 12:17:19 +0000
Andy Smith <andy@strugglers.net> wrote:

Hi,

Reading the other suggestions and your replies I don't think you're
going to find anything; you're mostly not happy that the suggestions
are too complicated, but databases *are* complicated and they're also
very generic in order to cover many use cases.

Ultimately if you want something direct and bespoke to the data you
need to manage, I think you're going to have to build an application
for it.

Depending on existing experience, there are a couple of ways to go. If
the OP has Windows experience with an MS visual language, or Delphi,
that's probably the way to go. Basic database work with Delphi is a few
drags and drops and probably very little code.

Lazarus is the Linux Delphi clone, and is quite mature now. This is
about the simplest way to develop database code in Linux, but it helps enormously to have a bit of visual object-oriented experience,
otherwise it's a bit of a learning curve. Heidi is written in Lazarus
as a port from the original Delphi.

Otherwise a PHP web application is probably the way to go, as I have
done. PHP has libraries for all the common database formats, but it can
be a bit of a slog. Pull a database table into an array, then construct
an HTML table from the data. Add code to enter and edit records. I
never delete anything from a database using an application, just have a 'deleted' Boolean if I need it.

There is a quick-and-dirty method of using MySQL/MariaBD if the OP is
prepared to migrate to it, along with PHP, called phpMyEdit https://www.phpmyedit.org/

Answer a few questions and you have a file which opens one specific
table for the usual functions. I do use a few of these for particular
jobs.

However?

On Wed, Apr 01, 2026 at 08:45:48AM +0100, Chris Green wrote:

Can anyone suggest anything that might provide what I want? It
doesn't absolutely **have** to work with sqlite3, I'm prepared to
move to mariadb or postgresql if necessary (though I'd prefer not
to).

If you are familiar with phpmyadmin and phppgadmin then there is also
a phpliteadmin for SQLite, and it's packaged in Debian. I haven't
tried it myself. If it's anything like the other two it will need
quite a bit of setup.

phpMyAdmin is OK for casual data entry, presumably if you need to
populate a lot of records you'd do it via a spreadsheet and CSV import
anyway.

--
Joe

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Wed, Apr 01, 2026 at 08:45:48AM +0100, Chris Green wrote:

I'm looking for a simple to use **data entry** tool to use with
(mostly) sqlite3 databases.

There are several quite good database management programs available
(e.g. sqlitebrowser) and anyway the sqlite3 command line program is
quite adequate for most of my dataase management needs. What I can't
find anywhere is a good way to enter data into tables.

[...]

Another possible approach is to use a spreadsheet (e.g. libreoffice
calc) as they provide **exactly** what I want for data entry and
editing. The trouble is that it isn't entirely straightforward getting
data from a sqlite3 database into and out of the spreadsheet.

[...]

I'm going to recommend that you do use a spreadsheet, and use sqlitebrowser
to import a CSV that you export from the spreadsheet program.

That said, it sounds like you really want something similar to FileMaker
Pro or MS Access as your frontend to sqlite. A quick search turned up these options: https://opensource.com/alternatives/access

--
Chris Green

--Gregory

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Hi, have you considered what does "a good way yo enter data into tables" mean? Every suggestion will be based on what the recommender thought good way means.
That said, if you have access to flatpak, you could try Sequeler[1], it is really basic and similar to sqlitebrowser, that much that I could not find use for my self.
As other have stated, a database (SQL) tends to be complex in nature, for anything simple, maybe keep text based files, like CSV or recutils.
Lenny.
[1] https://github.com/ellie-commons/sequeler
El 1 de abril de 2026 8:14:08?p.m. GMT-03:00, Gregory Seidman <gsslist+debian@anthropohedron.net> escribi¢:

On Wed, Apr 01, 2026 at 08:45:48AM +0100, Chris Green wrote:

I'm looking for a simple to use **data entry** tool to use with
(mostly) sqlite3 databases.

There are several quite good database management programs available
(e.g. sqlitebrowser) and anyway the sqlite3 command line program is
quite adequate for most of my dataase management needs. What I can't
find anywhere is a good way to enter data into tables.

[...]

Another possible approach is to use a spreadsheet (e.g. libreoffice
calc) as they provide **exactly** what I want for data entry and
editing. The trouble is that it isn't entirely straightforward getting
data from a sqlite3 database into and out of the spreadsheet.

[...]

I'm going to recommend that you do use a spreadsheet, and use sqlitebrowser >to import a CSV that you export from the spreadsheet program.

That said, it sounds like you really want something similar to FileMaker
Pro or MS Access as your frontend to sqlite. A quick search turned up these >options: https://opensource.com/alternatives/access

--
Chris Green

--Gregory

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Free format database (was: Re: I'm looking for a (sqlite) **data entry** tool)

On Wednesday, April 01, 2026 09:37:46 PM Lenny Andreu wrote:

As other have stated, a database (SQL) tends to be complex in nature, for anything simple, maybe keep text based files, like CSV or recutils.

I'm not the OP, but thanks for mentioning recutils as it is something I had never come across (and might look into deeper at some point).
This is going to sound crazy, but fwiw, I'll mention that since shortly after 2000 (maybe 2002?) I started using mbox files as a free format database. (I was an immigrant from Windows around that time and I was looking for a replacement for AskSam and ZyIndex.
(At the time, I couldn't find anything else to meet the need -- I guess since there may be better(?) choices (or there may have been choices which I didn't find at the time.)
I could say more, and if anyone is interested (which I don't really expect), I will say more. I'll just mention that I normally create "records" in a text editor (currently kate), but I can also create or read "records" with any email client which handles mbox files, and I can index the entire "database" using tools like recoll.
I also use variations of the TWiki / foswiki markup language to mark things like headers (and things like bold, italic, ...). (I use that markup so I can easily transfer records into a (my) TWiki (named WikiLearn). Kate is also set up (with a .xml file) to do things like fold text under headers (and some day, fold other constructs (e.g., citations)).


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Chris not sure if you have ever looked at Base which has drivers for
SQLITE https://www.openoffice.org/dba/drivers/

On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 9:58?PM Lenny Andreu <landreuhs@yahoo.com> w
rote:

Hi, have you considered what does "a good way yo enter data into tables"

mean? Every suggestion will be based on what the recommender thought good w
ay means.

That said, if you have access to flatpak, you could try Sequeler[1], it i

s really basic and similar to sqlitebrowser, that much that I could not fin
d use for my self.

As other have stated, a database (SQL) tends to be complex in nature, for

anything simple, maybe keep text based files, like CSV or recutils.

Lenny.

[1] https://github.com/ellie-commons/sequeler

El 1 de abril de 2026 8:14:08?p.m. GMT-03:00, Gregory Seidman <gs

slist+debian@anthropohedron.net> escribi¢:

On Wed, Apr 01, 2026 at 08:45:48AM +0100, Chris Green wrote:

I'm looking for a simple to use **data entry** tool to use with
(mostly) sqlite3 databases.

There are several quite good database management programs available
(e.g. sqlitebrowser) and anyway the sqlite3 command line program is
quite adequate for most of my dataase management needs. What I can't
find anywhere is a good way to enter data into tables.

[...]

Another possible approach is to use a spreadsheet (e.g. libreoffice
calc) as they provide **exactly** what I want for data entry and
editing. The trouble is that it isn't entirely straightforward getting
data from a sqlite3 database into and out of the spreadsheet.

[...]

I'm going to recommend that you do use a spreadsheet, and use sqlitebrow

ser

to import a CSV that you export from the spreadsheet program.

That said, it sounds like you really want something similar to FileMaker
Pro or MS Access as your frontend to sqlite. A quick search turned up th

ese

options: https://opensource.com/alternatives/access

--
Chris Green

--Gregory

--
- Andrew "lathama" Latham -

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)