Error DBI::SQLite file not existent

IB2017 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello monks

I am trying to improve the error handling of my application that uses SQLite. I have noticed that the following script is not producing an error, no matter what $database is (empty, a non existing database name, etc.). However, if $database does not exist I would have expected to see an error. This forces me to first check for the existence of $database. Is this a feature?

use DBI;
use strict;

my $driver   = "SQLite"; 
my $database = "";
my $dsn = "DBI:$driver:dbname=$database";
my $userid = "";
my $password = "";
my $dbh = DBI->connect($dsn, $userid, $password, { RaiseError => 1 }) 
   or die $DBI::errstr;

print "Opened database successfully\n";
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Re: Error DBI::SQLite file not existent by haj (Vicar) on Aug 19, 2018 at 18:21 UTC
Hello IB2017, The behaviour of DBD::SQLite when used with a non-existent file is a feature. It allows to create a fresh database out of thin air. You only get an error if you don't have the permission to write to the file's directory. As the docs say: The file is opened in read/write mode, and will be created if it does not exist yet. Although the database is stored in a single file, the directory containing the database file must be writable by SQLite because the library will create several temporary files there.	[reply]
Re: Error DBI::SQLite file not existent by thanos1983 (Parson) on Aug 20, 2018 at 07:52 UTC
Hello IB2017, You can also take a look on a previously asked question on the forum Determining if SQLite db exists. There are a few proposed solutions on how to implement what you ask. Hope this helps, BR. Seeking for Perl wisdom...on the process of learning...not there...yet!	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Error DBI::SQLite file not existent by IB2017 (Pilgrim) on Aug 20, 2018 at 09:41 UTC
I very appreciate your insides	[reply]