databow¶

A command-line tool for querying databases via ADBC.

Highlights¶

Multi-database support - Connect to any database with a compatible ADBC driver
Interactive SQL shell - Execute SQL queries with command history and intuitive navigation
Syntax highlighting - SQL queries highlighted for improved readability
Formatted output - Results displayed in clean, aligned tables with dynamic column width
File export - Export query results to JSON, CSV, or Arrow IPC files
Fast and lightweight - Built in Rust for high performance and minimal resource usage

Getting Started¶

Install the DuckDB ADBC driver with dbc:

dbc install duckdb

Note

databow can be used to query many different databases. This guide uses DuckDB for simplicity.

Interactive Usage¶

Connect to DuckDB (in-memory):

databow --driver duckdb

Execute SQL queries:

> CREATE TABLE penguins AS FROM 'https://blobs.duckdb.org/data/penguins.csv';
┌───────┐
│ Count │
├───────┤
│ 344   │
└───────┘
> SELECT *
. FROM penguins
. LIMIT 5;
┌─────────┬───────────┬────────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────────┬─────────────┬────────┬──────┐
│ species │ island    │ bill_length_mm │ bill_depth_mm │ flipper_length_mm │ body_mass_g │ sex    │ year │
├─────────┼───────────┼────────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────────┼─────────────┼────────┼──────┤
│ Adelie  │ Torgersen │ 39.1           │ 18.7          │ 181               │ 3750        │ male   │ 2007 │
│ Adelie  │ Torgersen │ 39.5           │ 17.4          │ 186               │ 3800        │ female │ 2007 │
│ Adelie  │ Torgersen │ 40.3           │ 18            │ 195               │ 3250        │ female │ 2007 │
│ Adelie  │ Torgersen │ NA             │ NA            │ NA                │ NA          │ NA     │ 2007 │
│ Adelie  │ Torgersen │ 36.7           │ 19.3          │ 193               │ 3450        │ female │ 2007 │
└─────────┴───────────┴────────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────────┴─────────────┴────────┴──────┘

Non-interactive Usage¶

Execute a query directly and exit:

databow --driver duckdb --query "SELECT 42 AS the_answer"

Execute a query from stdin and exit:

echo "SELECT 42 AS the_answer" | databow --driver duckdb

Execute a query from a file and exit:

databow --driver duckdb --file select_example.sql

Execute a query and output the result to a file:

databow --driver duckdb --query "SELECT 42 AS the_answer" --output result.json
databow --driver duckdb --query "SELECT 42 AS the_answer" --output result.csv
databow --driver duckdb --query "SELECT 42 AS the_answer" --output result.arrow