Output Formats

The SQLStream CLI supports multiple output formats to suit different needs, from human-readable tables to machine-parsable JSON.

Specifying Output Format

Use the --format option with the query command.

sqlstream query "SELECT * FROM 'data.csv'" --format <format>

Supported Formats

Table (Default)

Displays results in a formatted ASCII table using the rich library. Best for human inspection.

sqlstream query "SELECT name, age FROM 'users.csv'"

Output:

┏━━━━━━┳━━━━━┓
┃ name ┃ age ┃
┡━━━━━━╇━━━━━┩
│ Alice│ 30  │
│ Bob  │ 25  │
└──────┴─────┘

CSV

Outputs standard Comma-Separated Values. Useful for piping to other tools or saving to files.

sqlstream query "SELECT * FROM 'data.csv'" --format csv

Output:

name,age
Alice,30
Bob,25

JSON

Outputs a JSON array of objects. Ideal for web applications or processing with jq.

sqlstream query "SELECT * FROM 'data.csv'" --format json

Output:

[
  {"name": "Alice", "age": 30},
  {"name": "Bob", "age": 25}
]

Markdown

Outputs a Markdown-formatted table. Great for generating documentation.

sqlstream query "SELECT * FROM 'data.csv'" --format markdown

Output:

| name | age |
|------|-----|
| Alice| 30  |
| Bob  | 25  |

Interactive Shell Export

In the interactive shell (sqlstream shell), you can export results using Ctrl+X. This automatically exports the current result set to CSV, JSON, and Parquet (if available) simultaneously, saving them with a timestamped filename.