Output formats

sqx prints a readable table in a terminal and CSV when its output is piped or redirected. Choose any other format with -o.

Available formats

Flag	Output	Good for
`-o auto`	`table` in a terminal, `csv` when piped (the default)	Everyday use
`-o table`	Boxed ASCII table	Reading results
`-o csv`	Comma-separated values	Spreadsheets, other tools
`-o tsv`	Tab-separated values	`cut`, `awk`, pasting into sheets
`-o json`	A JSON array of objects	APIs, `jq`, JavaScript
`-o jsonl`	One JSON object per line	Streaming, log pipelines
`-o md`	Markdown table	READMEs, issues, reports
`-o raw`	Values only, one row per line	`xargs`, shell loops

JSON and JSON Lines

sqx -f u=data/users.csv -o json "SELECT id, name, plan FROM u LIMIT 2"

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Asha Rao",
    "plan": "pro"
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "name": "Ben Carter",
    "plan": "free"
  }
]

sqx -f u=data/users.csv -o jsonl "SELECT id, name FROM u LIMIT 2"

{"id":1,"name":"Asha Rao"}
{"id":2,"name":"Ben Carter"}

This makes sqx a one-line CSV to JSON converter. It works the other way too: cat data.json | sqx -o csv "SELECT * FROM stdin" converts JSON to CSV.

Markdown

sqx -f u=data/users.csv -o md "SELECT id, name, plan FROM u LIMIT 3" > users.md

| id | name | plan |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Asha Rao | pro |
| 2 | Ben Carter | free |
| 3 | Chen Wei | pro |

Raw values for shell scripts

raw prints only the values, which is ideal for feeding other commands:

sqx -f u=data/users.csv -o raw "SELECT email FROM u" | xargs -n1 echo mail:

Leaving out the header

Add -no-output-header to drop the header row from csv or tsv output:

sqx -f u=data/users.csv -o csv -no-output-header "SELECT id, name FROM u" >> all_users.csv