How to Create new Spatialite Layer on QGIS

Hello everyone, welcome to my GIS Tutorial. Today I am going to show you a quick tip on how to create new Spatialite layer on QGIS. I am using QGIS version 2.18 on my Windows 10. If you run QGIS on another operating system such as Ubuntu Linux, you still be able to use this tutorial as a guide. I like to use QGIS because it is free and has many features. QGIS also supports many types of files such as ESRI Shapefile, Mapinfo TAB file and so on. 

What is Spatialite Layer?

Before we jump into the tutorial, let’s take a look at the Spatialite. What is the Spatialite layer? SpatiaLite is an SQLite database engine with Spatial functions added. This also means that we can You can think of it as a spatial extender for SQLite database engine which is similar in concept to what PostGIS does for the PostgreSQL Object-Relational Database. (source).

Why we use Spatialite 

Well, there are many benefits of using Spatialite. First, we can fit all tables into one single file which is easier to distribute. It also supports SQL views, triggers, and it allows us to mount external files as virtual tables. 

Create new Spatialite Layer on QGIS

OK so now we are going to create our first Spatialite Layer on QGIS. I assume you have installed QGIS on your computer. If you are running Ubuntu, you can read my previous tutorial on how to install QGIS on Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark. If you are on Windows, you can download and install QGIS from the official website.

To create a new Spatialite Layer, please follow these steps below:

  1. Go to Layer | Create Layer | Create New Spatialite Layer
  2. Select the layer type using the radio button.
  3. Click the button to create a new Spatialite Database


  4. Click New and Give a new name to our Spatialite file. In my case, I use Latihan.sqlite.
  5. Click Save and you will see the following message
  6. Now type the layer name and add some other fields if you want to. 
  7. Click OK and now you should have a new Spatialite layer ready for use.

You can now edit the new Spatialite layer. 

Create new Spatialite Layer on QGIS

Thanks for reading this how to create new Spatialite layer on QGIS. See you on the next tutorial.

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