Using Liquibase with HSQLDB
HyperSQL Database (HSQLDB) is a relational database management system. For more information, see HSQLDB Documentation.
Supported versions
- 2.7.X
- 2.6.X
- 2.5.X
- 2.4.X
- 2.3.4
Prerequisites
- Install Liquibase.
- Create a Liquibase project folder to store all Liquibase files. You can do this manually or with the init project command.
- Create a new Liquibase properties file or use the
liquibase.properties
file included in the installation package. For more information, see Create and Configure a liquibase.properties File.
Install drivers
To use Liquibase and HSQLDB, you need the JDBC driver JAR file (Maven download).
liquibase/internal/lib
directory.
If you use Maven, pom.xml
file.
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hsqldb</groupId>
<artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
<version>2.5.2</version>
</dependency>
Test your connection
- Ensure your HSQL database is configured. See Running and Using HyperSQL for more information.
- Specify the database URL in the Liquibase properties file. Liquibase does not parse the URL. You can either specify the full database connection string or specify the URL using your database's standard JDBC format:
url: jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://<host>:<port>/<database>
Note: As an HSQLDB database can be run in two modes—standalone and server—the url
property formats differ. The standalone mode runs the database engine as part of your application program, and the software runs in the same local thread. If you use the standalone mode of HSQLDB, follow this format of the url
property:
jdbc:hsqldb:file:<database>
Tip: To apply a Liquibase Pro key to your project, add the following property to the Liquibase properties file: licenseKey: <paste code here>
- Create a text file called changelog (
.xml
,.sql
,.json
, or.yaml
) in your project directory and add a changeset. - Navigate to your project folder in the CLI and run the Liquibase status command to see whether the connection is successful:
- Inspect the SQL with the update-sql command. Then make changes to your database with the update command.
- From a database UI tool, ensure that your database contains the
test_table
you added along with the DATABASECHANGELOG table and DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK table.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd">
<changeSet id="1" author="Liquibase">
<createTable tableName="test_table">
<column name="test_id" type="int">
<constraints primaryKey="true"/>
</column>
<column name="test_column" type="varchar"/>
</createTable>
</changeSet>
</databaseChangeLog>

-- liquibase formatted sql
-- changeset liquibase:1
CREATE TABLE test_table (test_id INT, test_column VARCHAR(256), PRIMARY KEY (test_id))
Tip: Formatted SQL changelogs generated from Liquibase versions before 4.2 might cause issues because of the lack of space after a double dash ( -- ). To fix this, add a space after the double dash. For example: -- liquibase formatted sql
instead of --liquibase formatted sql
and -- changeset myname:create-table
instead of --changeset myname:create-table

databaseChangeLog:
- changeSet:
id: 1
author: Liquibase
changes:
- createTable:
columns:
- column:
name: test_column
type: INT
constraints:
primaryKey: true
nullable: false
tableName: test_table

{
"databaseChangeLog": [
{
"changeSet": {
"id": "1",
"author": "Liquibase",
"changes": [
{
"createTable": {
"columns": [
{
"column":
{
"name": "test_column",
"type": "INT",
"constraints":
{
"primaryKey": true,
"nullable": false
}
}
}]
,
"tableName": "test_table"
}
}]
}
}]
}
liquibase status --username=test --password=test --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>
Note: You can pass arguments in the CLI or keep them in the Liquibase properties file.
liquibase update-sql --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>
liquibase update --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>