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Opening a database without creating a new one and Error logging
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> sqlite, by default, create a database if it doesn't already exist.

Only through *some* of its interfaces. You can do what the OP wants via [`sqlite3_open_v2(..., SQLITE_OPEN_READWRITE)`][1].

The question, then, is how to get the PHP SQLite DB API to call that instead of `sqlite3_open()` or how to call "v2" without `SQLITE_OPEN_CREATE`.

[1]: https://sqlite.org/c3ref/open.html