Building and Opening Existing Databases#

There are multiple ways to use existing databases with the AstroDB Toolkit.

The first step is to get the database onto your machine. That likely entails cloning the database’s repository or downloading the database files directly.

If you have a single database file (SQLite format), you can open it directly. If you have the database files (JSON data files and a settings TOML file), you will need to build the database first.

Reading a Database File#

If you have a database file (SQLite format), you can load it directly using the Python or a graphical user interface (GUI).

Using Python#

read_db_from_file function.

Using a GUI#

Once you have an SQLite database file, you can use a graphical user interface (GUI) to explore and query the database. These tools allow you to visually inspect the database schema, run SQL queries, and view results without writing code. There are many options available, such as:

Building the database from JSON files#

If you have the database files (JSON data files and a settings TOML file), you can build the database using Python or the command-line tool.

Using Python#

Once you have the database files, you can access them using the astrodb-utils package. To load the database, the relevant functions are in the loaders module. These functions use the database settings file (TOML format) to create an SQLite database file and load the database into Python.

from astrodb-utils import build_db_from_json

# Load the database into a variable called `db`
# and make a sqlite file
db = build_db_from_json(settings_file = "path/to/database.toml")

# Print the available tables in the database
for table in db.metadata.tables:
  print(table)

You might need to provide more variables to the build_db_from_json function, depending on how your database is set up.

Using the Command-Line#

You can build an SQLite database from JSON files using the build_db_from_json command-line script.

build_db_from_json

This command will:

  • Read the database configuration from database.toml

  • Create a new SQLite database file using the JSON data files

For detailed information about all available options, examples, and troubleshooting, see the Command-Line Interface page.