SQL Formatter

Beautify and format SQL queries instantly

DeveloperFREEYour data never leaves your browser

100% freeNo signupRuns in your browser

Built by WOWHOW Team · 14+ yrs engineering

SQL Formatter is a free, browser-based tool that lets you beautify and format sql queries instantly — with zero signup, zero installation. Your data never leaves your browser. Part of 138+ free developer and business tools at wowhow.cloud, built and maintained by a team with 14+ years of hands-on development experience.

TOOLSQL Formatter

Indent:

Keywords:

Input SQL1 lines

Formatted SQL

14 lines

SELECT u . id,
u . name,
u . email,
o . total_amount,
o . created_at
FROM users u
INNER JOIN orders o ON u . id = o . user_id
WHERE u . status = 'active'
AND o . total_amount > 100
AND o . created_at >= '2025-01-01'
GROUP BY u . id, u . name, u . email
ORDER BY o . total_amount DESC
LIMIT 50;

About SQL Formatter

SQL readability directly affects code review quality, debugging speed, and the ability to catch logical errors before they reach production. A poorly formatted JOIN chain or a deeply nested subquery can hide a missing condition or an unintentional Cartesian product. SQL formatting tools apply the ANSI SQL standard keyword conventions — SELECT, FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY, ORDER BY — with consistent indentation so that the logical structure of a query is immediately visible, regardless of how the original was written.

How It Works

The formatter tokenizes the SQL input into a stream of keywords, identifiers, operators, literals, and comments. SQL keywords defined in the ANSI SQL:2016 standard are recognized by a keyword list and normalized to the selected casing (UPPER, lower, or Title). The tokenizer handles edge cases including quoted identifiers (backticks, square brackets, double quotes), string literals with escaped quotes, and block comments.

The pretty-printer walks the token stream and applies indentation rules based on clause boundaries. SELECT columns are indented under SELECT. JOIN conditions are aligned under their JOIN keyword. Subqueries receive an additional indent level, and closing parentheses de-indent. CTEs (WITH clauses) are formatted as named blocks before the main query.

Minification runs the reverse: all whitespace tokens are collapsed to single spaces, newlines are removed, and consecutive whitespace inside string literals is preserved. The output is a single-line query suitable for embedding in application code or logging.

Who Is This For

A data analyst reformats a 200-line report query generated by an ORM into readable SQL before submitting it to a DBA for performance review.

A backend developer minifies a parameterized SQL query before embedding it as a string constant in a Go source file, reducing visual clutter.

A developer pastes a hand-written query with inconsistent casing (select vs SELECT vs Select) and formats it to UPPER convention before adding it to a shared query library.

A database administrator formats an automatically generated migration script to verify the column types and constraints are correct before running it on production.

How to Use

Paste your SQL query in the left panel

Choose keyword casing (UPPER, lower, Title) and indent size (2 or 4)

See the formatted output with syntax highlighting on the right

Copy the formatted SQL or download as a .sql file

Frequently Asked Questions

SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE TABLE, ALTER, JOINs (INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, FULL, CROSS), subqueries, CASE WHEN, and CTEs (WITH clauses).

Yes. Click the "Minify" button to compress SQL into a single line with minimal whitespace — useful for embedding in code.

No. The formatter only changes whitespace, indentation, and keyword casing. Your SQL logic and data remain unchanged.

No. All formatting happens in your browser. Your queries never leave your device.

No. SQL formatters operate on the text representation only. The SQL engine receives the same logical query regardless of whitespace or keyword casing. Performance depends on query structure, indexes, and execution plans — not formatting.

The formatter handles ANSI SQL and common extensions including PostgreSQL-style $$ dollar-quoting, MySQL backtick identifiers, and SQL Server square-bracket identifiers. Dialect-specific functions and operators are treated as unrecognized tokens and passed through unchanged.

Single-line comments (--) and block comments (/* */) are stripped in minify mode. If you need to preserve hints or query tags (e.g., /* index: idx_users */), use the format mode instead, which keeps all comments in place.

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SELECT u . id, u . name, u . email, o . total_amount, o . created_at FROM users u INNER JOIN orders o ON u . id = o . user_id WHERE u . status = 'active' AND o . total_amount > 100 AND o . created_at >= '2025-01-01' GROUP BY u . id, u . name, u . email ORDER BY o . total_amount DESC LIMIT 50;

About SQL Formatter