Convert SQL to ASCII Table Online

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

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

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Header rowDetect numbers

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

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 ASCII Table is

An ASCII table is a grid drawn with plus signs, dashes and pipes. It renders identically in every terminal and every font.

Command line output, code comments, plain text email and commit messages.

What changes when you convert SQL to ASCII Table

Column names come from the INSERT column list, or from a CREATE TABLE if one is present. Quoted strings are unquoted, doubled quotes are collapsed, and NULL becomes an empty cell.

Column widths are measured in display columns rather than characters, so a table with CJK or emoji content still lines up.

What carries over from SQL to ASCII Table

SQL records 4 things about a table that ASCII table has no way to hold.

SQL distinguishes a number from the text of a number; ASCII table does not, so every value arrives as text and has to be re-parsed by whatever reads it next.

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

A line break inside a cell ends the row in ASCII table, so line breaks are replaced rather than carried through.

SQL can be read one record at a time. ASCII table has to be complete before it means anything, so the whole table is held in memory while it is written and a file that gets cut off part way through is not partly usable - it is unusable.

The identifier 007 comes out of the ASCII Table 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 ASCII Table file goes wrong.

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

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.

SQL in

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');

ASCII Table out

+-----+------------------+---------------+------------+-------+
| 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    |
+-----+------------------+---------------+------------+-------+

Questions

How do I convert SQL to ASCII Table?

Paste your SQL into the box above or drop the file onto it. Check the table in the grid, then copy or download the ASCII Table 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.

Will my numbers still be numbers?

They will read the same, but ASCII table stores them as text. Anything that sorts or sums the result will need to parse them first, and a leading zero or a currency symbol is the usual place that goes wrong.

One of my cells has a line break in it - what happens?

A line break would end the row in ASCII table, so it is replaced instead of carried through. The rest of the cell stays where it belongs.

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.