SQL Formatter

What Is the SQL Formatter?

This tool beautifies a SQL statement for readability: it uppercases major keywords (SELECT, FROM, WHERE, JOIN, etc.) and breaks each major clause onto its own line. It's a keyword-based beautifier, not a full SQL parser -- it works on the statement's text structure rather than deeply understanding SQL syntax.

How to Use This Tool

Paste a SQL statement (even one written on a single line). The formatted version appears instantly.

How the Formatting Works

Worked Example

Practical Uses

• Making a minified or auto-generated SQL query readable for review
• Standardizing SQL keyword casing before committing to version control
• Quickly formatting a query pasted from a database log or ORM debug output

For formatting JSON output from a database query instead, see the JSON to CSV Converter or general XML Formatter depending on your data's shape.

Precisely What Gets Rearranged

The tool first collapses every run of whitespace, including existing line breaks, into a single space, so previously formatted SQL is flattened before being reformatted. It then uppercases the recognized keywords: SELECT, FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, HAVING, LIMIT, the JOIN forms, INSERT INTO, VALUES, UPDATE, SET, DELETE FROM, AND and OR. New lines are inserted before SELECT, FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, HAVING, LIMIT, the JOIN forms, VALUES, SET, AND and OR, and AND and OR receive a two-space indent. INSERT INTO, UPDATE and DELETE FROM are uppercased but do not start a new line, so they stay on the same line as the preceding text. Other words, such as ON, IN, LIKE, AS, CASE, DISTINCT or function names, are not touched and keep whatever case you typed.

A Worked Example with a Join

Take the hypothetical statement: select o.id, c.name from orders o inner join customers c on o.cid = c.id where o.total > 100 order by o.id. The result places SELECT on the first line with its column list, then FROM orders o, then INNER JOIN customers c on o.cid = c.id, then WHERE, then ORDER BY, each on its own line. Note that the word on stays in lower case because it is not in the keyword list, and the join condition remains on the same line as the JOIN.

Caution: Text Inside Quotes

Because the tool works on text patterns and not on a real parse, it cannot tell a keyword from a word inside a quoted string. A literal such as 'this and that' contains the word and, which would be uppercased and given a line break, changing the string's contents. The same happens with a column or alias that happens to be named like a keyword. Whitespace is also collapsed inside quotes, so a string with two spaces in a row becomes one. This makes the output unsafe to run against a database when your statement includes string literals containing keywords or repeated spaces. Use it to read and review queries, and check the literals afterward, or take the formatted layout and re-paste the original literals by hand.

What It Does Not Do

• No indentation for subqueries or parentheses. Nested queries appear flat, so complex statements may still be hard to read.
• No alignment of column lists; a long list of columns stays on one line.
• No handling of comments. Line comments that begin with two hyphens are merged into the following text once line breaks are collapsed, which can swallow real code in a comment. Remove comments before formatting.
• No dialect-specific keywords. Words like RETURNING, WINDOW, UNION or OFFSET are not recognized and stay as typed.

Good Habits for Reviewing Queries

Format a query before reading it in a code review so that each clause is visible and the filter conditions can be scanned one per line. When a query returns wrong data, look at the WHERE section first for mixed AND and OR conditions and check whether parentheses are needed, since the formatter does not add them. For performance advice or correctness checks, use your database's own explain or validation features and consult your database administrator, because a beautifier cannot judge either.

Frequently Asked Questions