What Is MySQL Output? Format, Uses and Conversions

What is MySQL Output?

Not a file format at all. It is what the MySQL command line prints when you run a query: a box drawn with plus signs, dashes and pipes, with a line underneath saying how many rows were in the set.

Who uses it

Anyone who has run a query in a terminal and wants the answer in a spreadsheet.

Reading MySQL Output

The rules and the trailing row count are dropped and the pipes become column boundaries. MySQL prints an unset value as the four characters NULL, which arrives here as an empty cell, because that is what NULL means and because a literal string of NULL in a spreadsheet is worse than a blank. Paste it as CSV instead and every row becomes one column full of pipes, which is why this is its own format.

What it can hold

MySQL is a database format. Backtick-quoted identifiers and a MySQL-specific dialect of the same INSERT statements. A machine can read the table back out of it without guessing, which is what makes it safe to convert into and out of.

It keeps

Types. A number stays a number and a boolean stays a boolean, so whatever reads the file next does not have to guess from how a value looks.
The difference between empty and missing, which most table formats cannot express at all.
A line break inside a cell, which survives rather than ending the row.
A header that is marked as one, rather than being the first row by convention.

It cannot express

Nesting. Cells are flat, so structured values have to be flattened into extra columns or written into one cell as text.
Any formatting. Bold, colour, column widths and merged cells have nowhere to go.

What it looks like

Example MySQL Output

+-----+------------------+---------------+------------+-------+
| id  | name             | role          | started    | hours |
+-----+------------------+---------------+------------+-------+
| 007 | Halima Yusuf     | Analyst, data | 2024-03-15 | 38.5  |
| 012 | Jonah "Jo" Pryce | Engineer      | 2025-11-02 | NULL  |
| 104 | Wei Chen         | Manager       | 2023-06-30 | 40    |
+-----+------------------+---------------+------------+-------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Questions

Can I paste output from psql or sqlite3 as well?

psql draws its box with different characters and is not read here. Both psql and the MySQL client can print tab-separated output instead, which is detected as TSV and is the more reliable route for either: mysql -B, or \pset format unaligned and \pset fieldsep in psql.

How do I open MySQL Output files?

Any text editor will show you the contents. To read it as a table, paste it into the converter on this site and it appears in an editable grid. Nothing is uploaded.

Is MySQL Output a good format for sharing data?

It depends who is receiving it. Anyone who has run a query in a terminal and wants the answer in a spreadsheet. If the recipient is outside that group, a plain CSV travels further than anything else.