Convert MediaWiki to SQL Online

Paste a MediaWiki table below, edit it if you need to, and get SQL back. The conversion runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded, there is no size limit and there is no signup.

From

From a page

The only part of this site that uses a server. The address is sent to it so the page can be fetched, because a browser is not allowed to fetch someone else's page itself. Your own files are never involved.

Nothing here is uploaded. The parsing happens on this page.

Edit

Paste or upload something above and it will appear here.

ToDataMarkupDocumentsCodeSchemasImages

Header rowDetect numbersTableStatementsRows per statement

The output will appear here once there is a table to convert.

What MediaWiki is

MediaWiki table markup opens with {| and a class, marks headers with an exclamation mark and rows with |-.

Wikipedia editors and anyone running a MediaWiki install.

What SQL is

SQL here means the statements that move a table into a database: INSERT INTO with a VALUES list, and optionally the CREATE TABLE that defines the columns.

Anyone seeding a database, moving a spreadsheet into an application, or writing a migration.

What changes when you convert MediaWiki to SQL

Both cell styles are read: one cell per line, and several on a line separated by exclamation marks or double pipes, which is the form most Wikipedia tables use. Cell attributes before a single pipe are dropped, since style="text-align:right" is presentation rather than data. Wiki links come through as their display text, so [[France|the French Republic]] arrives as the French Republic, and reference markers are removed.

String values are escaped by doubling any single quote. Statements are written in batches so a large table does not become one statement megabytes long, which many clients refuse. Ask for CREATE TABLE as well and column types are inferred: a column stays INT until a value does not fit, then widens to DECIMAL, then to VARCHAR.

What carries over from MediaWiki to SQL

MediaWiki records 2 things about a table that SQL has no way to hold.

SQL wants a type for each column, and MediaWiki does not record one, so each column is typed from what its values look like. A column of digits that should stay text - a zip code, a phone number, a leading-zero id - is the usual thing to check afterwards.

MediaWiki can hold a value that is itself a list or an object. SQL has only flat cells, so nested values are flattened into one cell rather than being spread across columns.

Anything visual in the MediaWiki - weight, alignment, colour, column widths - has no counterpart in SQL and is dropped. The values are what survives.

The result can be read a record at a time, and appended to by adding to the end of it. That is worth having for a table too large to hold in memory, and it means a SQL file that is cut off part way through still gives you every record before the cut.

The identifier 007 comes out of the SQL as 007. Reading it as a number would have made it 7, and an id that changes value is worse than one that stays text.

The role "Analyst, data" survives with its comma, in one cell rather than split across two. That is the first thing to check in any converted table, and the usual place a SQL file goes wrong.

The quotes around Jonah "Jo" Pryce are left as a plain quote character in the SQL.

A worked example

Three rows of staff data, with an identifier that has a leading zero, a value containing a comma, a value containing quotes and one blank cell. Those are the four places formats disagree, so they are the four places to look.

MediaWiki in

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! id !! name !! role !! started !! hours
|-
| 007 || Halima Yusuf || Analyst, data || 2024-03-15 || 38.5
|-
| 012 || Jonah "Jo" Pryce || Engineer || 2025-11-02 ||
|-
| 104 || Wei Chen || Manager || 2023-06-30 || 40
|}

SQL out

INSERT INTO `staff` (`id`, `name`, `role`, `started`, `hours`) VALUES
  ('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');

Questions

How do I convert MediaWiki to SQL?

Paste your MediaWiki into the box above or drop the file onto it. Check the table in the grid, then copy or download the SQL from the output panel. It takes one step and the data never leaves your browser.

Are the generated INSERT statements safe to run?

Quotes in your data are escaped, so the statements are syntactically correct. They are not parameterised, which is fine for a one-off import you are running yourself and not fine as a pattern for application code that takes user input.

What happens to nested values?

SQL has no nested cell, so a list or object inside a MediaWiki value is flattened into a single cell rather than expanded into extra columns. Split it before converting if the parts need to be separate.

Is there a limit on file size?

No. The work happens on your own machine, so the limit is your machine's memory rather than an upload cap. A file with tens of thousands of rows converts in a second or two.

Is my data uploaded anywhere?

No. The parsing and generating are done by JavaScript running on this page. You can watch the network tab while you convert and see that nothing is sent.