[sqlite] speed

[Brandon Whalen]

I'm currently trying to use sqlite to manage a database in a c program.  
I have 4 tables where each table has at most 6 columns.  I've found that 
if I use a select statement and run that statement through a callback 
function that I get incredibly slow response times.  I've found that the 
select statement itself happens rather fast, but its taking the selected 
data and sending it to my callbacks that is taking the most time, 
specifically I've found from gprof:
Each sample counts as 0.01 seconds.
 %   cumulative   self              self     total
time   seconds   seconds    calls  ms/call  ms/call  name
22.90   1592.40  1592.40 1649956995     0.00     0.00  getPayload
21.97   3120.02  1527.62    23262    65.67   272.85  sqlite3VdbeExec

Is this common in sqlite?  I've tested my sql statement on the command 
line and its rather fast, but I've also found that if I run a built in 
function(count) on the results that it too suffers from a severe 
slowdown in performance.