Using SQLite for Unit Testing in PHP

Unit testing is infamous when one attempts to test database-interacting classes. I noted that some had suggested using SQLite when running phpunit to test these sorts of classes. Been working for me, so I thought I'd jot it down here.

First, make sure sqlite3 is installed. On Ubuntu you'd run the following at the command prompt (assuming this step is necessary, but now I'm not quite sure):

sudo apt-get install sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev

Next, make sure PHP support for sqlite3 is installed enter this at the command prompt:

sudo apt-get install php5-sqlite

And then, in the part of your PHP script where you set up PDO (if that's the class you use, as I do), you can specify sqlite's in-memory DB:

$conn = new PDO('sqlite::memory');