Endless Syntax Errors for sqlite in terminal

I'm trying to lean sqlite3 and create databases, but I'm having trouble getting started. I go to the Terminal and start things off by typing sqlite3. I get the following prompt:

sqlite>

I installed sqlAcademy and am trying to work through the tutorial, but with examples like:

>>> import sqlalchemy
>>> sqlalchemy.__version__ 
0.7.0

They appear to be typing in the Terminal, but my开发者_开发知识库 code shows an error:

sqlite> import sqlalchemy;
Error: near "import": syntax error

Is there a wrapper I should be using in Terminal so I can type in Python? Do I need to individually write, compile, and run all of the example or is there an easier way?

I know this sounds vague, but I think I'm doing something very obvious wrong. Just too new to know what it is.

That's because you're running in sqlite terminal. The sample code should be run from python's terminal.

To further expand on Demian's answer:

In the terminal type:

$ python

you will get (or similar depending on which version of python you have installed)

Python 2.7.1+ (r271:86832, Apr 11 2011, 18:13:53) 
[GCC 4.5.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

From there you can enter your import sqlalchemy

Alternatively you can create a python script file (*.py) and put your code in it. Then run run the code by changing to the directory that your files are in, and entering

python filename.py

Hope that helps.