Tablizer

Convert MySQL Output to PDF Online

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

From

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

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

What MySQL Output is

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.

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

What PDF is

PDF describes a page: glyphs at coordinates, not rows and columns. A table in a PDF is a visual arrangement, not a data structure.

Reports, invoices, statements and anything sent to be read rather than processed.

What changes when you convert MySQL Output to PDF

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.

The table is drawn into a paginated document with the header repeated on every page, so a long table stays readable past page one. Page size, orientation and font size are all adjustable.

What carries over from MySQL Output to PDF

MySQL records 4 things about a table that PDF has no way to hold.

MySQL knows which of its values are numbers. PDF keeps only their appearance, so nothing downstream can sort or sum them without someone reading them back off the page first.

An empty cell and a missing one are the same thing in PDF, so a null and an empty string in the MySQL both come out blank and can no longer be told apart.

Nothing in PDF records that the first row is a header. It is drawn at the top and looks like one, which is all that is left of the distinction.

PDF is the end of the line for this data. Reading the table back out of it is a separate and much harder problem than writing it, so keep the MySQL if you will need the values again.

Questions

How do I convert MySQL Output to PDF?

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

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.

Can I get my table back out of the PDF?

Out of one made here, yes, because the text is real text. Out of a scanned document, no. A scan is an image of a page, and pulling data from it needs optical character recognition, which is a different job with a different failure rate.

Can I convert the PDF back to MySQL afterwards?

Not mechanically. PDF keeps how the table looks, not what it held, so going back means reading the values off the page again. Keep the MySQL if you will need it.

Will my numbers still be numbers?

They will look the same, but PDF holds no values at all - only their appearance. Nothing can add up a column of a PDF without the numbers being read back out of it first.

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.

Related conversions