Suggest --alter if column is missing, closes #259, refs #256

sqlite_utils/cli.py

@@ -732,9 +732,16 @@ def insert_upsert_implementation(
         extra_kwargs["upsert"] = upsert
     # Apply {"$base64": true, ...} decoding, if needed
     docs = (decode_base64_values(doc) for doc in docs)
-    db[table].insert_all(
-        docs, pk=pk, batch_size=batch_size, alter=alter, **extra_kwargs
-    )
+    try:
+        db[table].insert_all(
+            docs, pk=pk, batch_size=batch_size, alter=alter, **extra_kwargs
+        )
+    except sqlite3.OperationalError as e:
+        if e.args and "has no column named" in e.args[0]:
+            raise click.ClickException(
+                "{}\n\nTry using --alter to add additional columns".format(e.args[0])
+            )
+        raise
 
 
 @cli.command()

tests/test_cli.py

@@ -354,6 +354,21 @@ def test_add_column_foreign_key(db_path):
     assert "table 'bobcats' does not exist" in str(result.exception)
 
 
+def test_suggest_alter_if_column_missing(db_path):
+    db = Database(db_path)
+    db["authors"].insert({"id": 1, "name": "Sally"}, pk="id")
+    result = CliRunner().invoke(
+        cli.cli,
+        ["insert", db_path, "authors", "-"],
+        input='{"id": 2, "name": "Barry", "age": 43}',
+    )
+    assert result.exit_code != 0
+    assert result.output.strip() == (
+        "Error: table authors has no column named age\n\n"
+        "Try using --alter to add additional columns"
+    )
+
+
 def test_index_foreign_keys(db_path):
     test_add_column_foreign_key(db_path)
     db = Database(db_path)