Convert SQL to PNG Online

Paste a SQL table below, edit it if you need to, and get PNG 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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Paste or upload something above and it will appear here.
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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 PNG is

A lossless image format. Text and thin lines stay exactly as drawn, which is what a table is made of.

Slides, chat messages, issue trackers, and anywhere a table has to travel as a picture rather than as data.

What changes when you convert SQL to PNG

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.

The table is drawn from the data onto a canvas rather than captured from the page, so the whole thing comes out however long it is and however much of it is on screen. Column widths are measured from the content, alternating rows are shaded, and the scale is adjustable so a table for a slide or a print layout can be drawn at two or three times the size.

What carries over from SQL to PNG

SQL records 5 things about a table that PNG has no way to hold.

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

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

Nothing in PNG 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.

SQL can be read one record at a time. PNG 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.

PNG 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 SQL if you will need the values again.

Questions

How do I convert SQL to PNG?

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

Can I get the data back out of a PNG of a table?

Not without optical character recognition, which is a different kind of software with a different failure rate. An image of a table is pixels. If anyone downstream might want to sort or sum the numbers, send the table as well as the picture.

Can I convert the PNG back to SQL afterwards?

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

Will my numbers still be numbers?

They will look the same, but PNG holds no values at all - only their appearance. Nothing can add up a column of a PNG 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.

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