Make sure the SQLite on Android uses UTF-8 as a charset

Question

I am developing an Android application using SQLite as backend.

I want to make sure all the tables in the database use UTF-8. How can I achieve that?

I have tried:

CREATE TABLE myTable (_all_columns_definitions_) DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

but a syntax error arose.

Answer 1

Given that sqlite only supports UTF-8 and UTF-16 as the encodings, you would have noticed if Android would create databases in something other than UTF-8. sqlite3_open defaults to create the database in UTF-8, and that is what Android is likely to use.

Answer 2

You need to make use of the encoding PRAGMA:

PRAGMA encoding = "UTF-8";

Answer 3

By default Android SQLite uses UTF-8. I had the same problem with special characters, but because when I populated the database on the first launch I used a txt file with another charset.