> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.turso.tech/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Turso Quickstart (C)

> Get started with Turso and C using the libSQL client in a few simple steps.

<Snippet file="technical-preview-banner.mdx" />

In this C quickstart we will learn how to:

* Retrieve database credentials
* Install the libSQL package
* Connect to a local or remote Turso database
* Execute a query using SQL
* Sync changes to local database (optional)

<Steps>
  <Step title="Retrieve database credentials">
    You will need an existing database to continue. If you don't have one, [create one](/quickstart).

    <Snippet file="retrieve-database-credentials.mdx" />

    <Snippet file="mobile-secrets-warning.mdx" />
  </Step>

  <Step title="Install">
    To use libSQL with C, you need to build the library from source:

    <Card title="libSQL C" href="https://github.com/tursodatabase/libsql">
      Build from source code
    </Card>

    After building, make sure to link against the library when compiling your C program:

    ```bash theme={null}
    gcc -o your_program your_program.c -L/path/to/libsql/lib -llibsql
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Connect">
    You must first initialize libSQL, create a `libsql_database_t` object, and then open a `libsql_connection_t` to it:

    <AccordionGroup>
      <Accordion title="Embedded Replicas">
        ```c theme={null}
        #include "libsql.h"

        libsql_setup((libsql_config_t){0});

        libsql_database_t db = libsql_database_init((libsql_database_desc_t){
            .path = "local.db",
            .url = "TURSO_DATABASE_URL",
            .auth_token = "TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN",
            .sync_interval = 300
        });

        libsql_connection_t conn = libsql_database_connect(db);
        ```
      </Accordion>

      <Accordion title="Local only">
        ```c theme={null}
        #include "libsql.h"

        libsql_setup((libsql_config_t){0});

        libsql_database_t db = libsql_database_init((libsql_database_desc_t){
            .path = "local.db"
        });

        libsql_connection_t conn = libsql_database_connect(db);
        ```
      </Accordion>

      <Accordion title="Remote only">
        ```c theme={null}
        #include "libsql.h"

        libsql_setup((libsql_config_t){0});

        libsql_database_t db = libsql_database_init((libsql_database_desc_t){
            .url = "TURSO_DATABASE_URL",
            .auth_token = "TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN"
        });

        libsql_connection_t conn = libsql_database_connect(db);
        ```
      </Accordion>
    </AccordionGroup>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Execute">
    You can execute a SQL query against your existing database by preparing a statement and then executing it:

    ```c theme={null}
    libsql_statement_t stmt = libsql_connection_prepare(conn, "SELECT * FROM users");
    libsql_rows_t rows = libsql_statement_query(stmt);
    ```

    If you need to use placeholders for values, you can do that:

    <CodeGroup>
      ```c Positional Query theme={null}
      libsql_statement_t stmt = libsql_connection_prepare(conn, "SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?");
      libsql_statement_bind_value(stmt, libsql_integer(1));
      libsql_rows_t rows = libsql_statement_query(stmt);
      ```

      ```c Positional Insert theme={null}
      libsql_statement_t stmt = libsql_connection_prepare(conn, "INSERT INTO users (id) VALUES (?)");
      libsql_statement_bind_value(stmt, libsql_integer(1));
      libsql_execute_t result = libsql_statement_execute(stmt);
      ```
    </CodeGroup>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Sync (Embedded Replicas only)">
    When using embedded replicas, you should call `libsql_database_sync()` on the database to sync your local database with the primary database, unless you are using `sync_interval` (though there is no issue with calling `sync` with `sync_interval` enabled):

    ```c theme={null}
    libsql_sync_t sync = libsql_database_sync(db);
    if (sync.err) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Error syncing database: %s\n", libsql_error_message(sync.err));
    } else {
        printf("Sync completed. Frame number: %llu, Frames synced: %llu\n",
                (unsigned long long)sync.frame_no,
                (unsigned long long)sync.frames_synced);
    }
    ```
  </Step>
</Steps>