integer.md

The BigInt primitive type

SQLite3 can store data in 64-bit signed integers, which are too big for JavaScript's number format to fully represent. To support this data type, better-sqlite3 is fully compatible with BigInts.

const big = BigInt('1152735103331642317');
big === 1152735103331642317n; // returns true
big.toString(); // returns "1152735103331642317"
typeof big; // returns "bigint"

Binding BigInts

BigInts can bind to Statements just like regular numbers. You can also return BigInts from user-defined functions. However, if you provide a BigInt that's too large to be a 64-bit signed integer, you'll get an error so that data integrity is protected.

db.prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id=?").get(BigInt('1152735103331642317'));
db.prepare("INSERT INTO users (id) VALUES (?)").run(BigInt('1152735103331642317'));

db.prepare("SELECT ?").get(2n ** 63n - 1n); // returns successfully
db.prepare("SELECT ?").get(2n ** 63n); // throws a RangeError

Getting BigInts from the database

By default, integers returned from the database (including the info.lastInsertRowid property) are normal JavaScript numbers. You can change this default as you please:

db.defaultSafeIntegers(); // BigInts by default
db.defaultSafeIntegers(true); // BigInts by default
db.defaultSafeIntegers(false); // Numbers by default

Additionally, you can override the default for individual Statements like so:

const stmt = db.prepare(SQL);

stmt.safeIntegers(); // Safe integers ON
stmt.safeIntegers(true); // Safe integers ON
stmt.safeIntegers(false); // Safe integers OFF

User-defined functions can receive BigInts as arguments. You can override the database's default setting like so:

db.function('isInt', { safeIntegers: true }, (value) => {
  return String(typeof value === 'bigint');
});

db.prepare('SELECT isInt(?)').pluck().get(10); // => "false"
db.prepare('SELECT isInt(?)').pluck().get(10n); // => "true"

Likewise, user-defined aggregates and virtual tables can also receive BigInts as arguments:

db.aggregate('addInts', {
  safeIntegers: true,
  start: 0n,
  step: (total, nextValue) => total + nextValue,
});

db.table('sequence', {
  safeIntegers: true,
  columns: ['value'],
  parameters: ['length', 'start'],
  rows: function* (length, start = 0n) {
    const end = start + length;
    for (let n = start; n < end; ++n) {
      yield { value: n };
    }
  },
});

It's worth noting that REAL (FLOAT) values returned from the database will always be represented as normal numbers.