🗃️ SQL Formatter
Format and beautify your SQL queries for better readability.
Features:
- Format: Beautifies SQL with proper indentation and line breaks
- Minify: Compresses SQL into a single line
- Supports SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, and more
- Preserves string literals and quoted identifiers
What Is SQL Formatting?
SQL formatting (also called SQL beautifying or pretty-printing) transforms raw, minified, or poorly indented SQL queries into a clean, readable format with consistent indentation, keyword casing, and line breaks. Formatted SQL is dramatically easier to read, debug, review, and maintain — especially for complex queries with multiple joins, subqueries, and conditions.
What Does a SQL Formatter Do?
- Keyword Capitalization: Standardizes SQL keywords to uppercase (e.g.,
SELECT,FROM,WHERE). - Indentation: Adds consistent indentation for subqueries, joins, and nested conditions.
- Line Breaks: Places each major clause on its own line for readability.
- Comma Placement: Standardizes comma placement in column lists (leading or trailing).
- Alias Alignment: Aligns table and column aliases for visual consistency.
Common Use Cases
- Code Review: Format SQL queries before committing to source control for easier peer review.
- Debugging: Reformat generated SQL from ORMs (Entity Framework, Hibernate) to understand what queries are being executed.
- Documentation: Include well-formatted SQL examples in technical documentation and wikis.
- Legacy Code: Clean up poorly formatted SQL in stored procedures, views, and legacy applications.
- Learning: Format complex queries to understand their structure and logic.
SQL Formatting Conventions
| Convention | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword casing | select name from users where id = 1 | SELECT name FROM users WHERE id = 1 |
| Clause per line | SELECT * FROM users WHERE active = 1 ORDER BY name | Each clause on separate line |
| Indented joins | SELECT ... FROM a JOIN b ON a.id = b.a_id | JOIN clause indented under FROM |
Frequently Asked Questions
Does formatting change the query's behavior?
No. SQL formatting only changes whitespace and casing — it does not alter the query's logic or execution. The database engine ignores formatting differences.
Which SQL dialects are supported?
This formatter supports standard ANSI SQL syntax, which is compatible with PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, SQLite, and Oracle. Dialect-specific extensions may not be perfectly formatted but will not be altered.