SpatiaLite - VirtualShape

Quick intro

• SQLite is a popular DBMS, simple, robust, easy to use and really lightweight
• each SQLite database is simply a file; you can freely copy it, compress it, send it on a LAN or WEB with no complication at all
  They are also portables; the same database file will work on Windows, Linux, MacOs etc
• the SpatiaLite extension enables SQLite to support spatial data too [aka GEOMETRY], in a way conformant to OpenGis specifications
  • supports standard WKT and WKB formats
  • implements SQL spatial functions such as AsText(), GeomFromText(), Area(), PointN() and alike
    Not all OpenGis functions are supported, but the main core is available
  • supports importing and exporting from / to shapefiles
  • supports coordinate reprojection via PROJ.4 and EPSG geodetic parameters dataset
• the VirtualShape extension enables SQLite to access shapefiles as VIRTUAL TABLEs
  • you can then perform standard SQL queries on external shapefiles, with no need for importing or converting them
• both SpatiaLite and VirtualShape are distributed in the form of shared libraries [DLLs on Windows]
  • integration with standard sqlite3 front end is allowed via .load 'extension' or SELECT load_extension('extension') mechanism
  • old versions of sqlite3 didn't support extensions; some up to date distribution disables them for security reasons
  • so, if you wish, you can alternatively use SQLiteGeo, a derivative sqlite3 3.5.7 [same sources] slightly modified in order to automatically load both SpatiaLite and VirtualShape

SpatiaLite and VirtualShape are developed and maintained by Alessandro Furieri a.furieri@lqt.it
They are open source software released under the LGPL license