The .import command attempts to import data from an
external file and insert it into the specified table. The table
must already exist. The file should be a text file with one row
per line. Each line should consist of a value separated by the
current separator string. The values in each line must match the
number and order of columns returned by the command SELECT * FROM
. The
import feature does not understand any form of value quotation
or character escape, so any instance of the separator string
within a value will cause an error. Any attempt to import a file
that uses quotations will result in the quotations being taken
as a literal part of the value.table-name
The built-in import functionality is extremely simple, and is not designed to work with robust file formats. If you have a need to frequently import a specific data format (including so-called universal formats, such as CSV), it may be simpler and easier to write your own importer. This can often be done reasonably quickly in the scripting language of your choice, or by writing a read-only external module.