Reference¶

CLI Arguments¶

--profile¶

Connection profile name or path

databow --profile warehouse

--driver¶

Driver name

databow --driver duckdb

--uri¶

Database uniform resource identifier

databow --driver mysql --uri root@tcp(localhost:33577)/test

--username¶

Database user username

databow --driver flightsql --uri grpc://localhost:9408 --username root

--password¶

Database user password

databow --driver flightsql --uri grpc://localhost:9408 --username root --password my_pwd

--option¶

Driver-specific database option

databow --driver duckdb --option path=file.db

--statement-option¶

Driver-specific statement option, applied to every statement executed

databow --driver postgresql --uri postgresql://crate@localhost:5432/crate --statement-option adbc.postgresql.use_copy=false

--mode¶

Table display style

Mode	Description
`ascii-full`	ASCII table with all borders
`ascii-full-condensed`	ASCII table without row dividers
`ascii-borders-only`	ASCII table with outer borders only
`ascii-borders-only-condensed`	ASCII outer borders without row spacing
`ascii-horizontal-only`	ASCII with horizontal lines only
`ascii-markdown`	Markdown-compatible table format
`ascii-no-borders`	ASCII table without any borders
`utf8-compact`	Compact UTF-8 table style (default)
`utf8-full`	UTF-8 box drawing with all borders
`utf8-full-condensed`	UTF-8 box drawing without row dividers
`utf8-borders-only`	UTF-8 with outer borders only
`utf8-horizontal-only`	UTF-8 with horizontal lines only
`utf8-no-borders`	UTF-8 table without any borders
`nothing`	No borders or lines

databow --driver duckdb --mode ascii-markdown

--query¶

Execute query and exit

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

--file¶

Read and execute file and exit

databow --driver duckdb --file select_example.sql

--output¶

Write result to file

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

The output format is inferred from the file extension:

Extension	Format
`.json`	JSON
`.jsonl`	JSON lines
`.csv`	CSV
`.arrow`, `.ipc`	Arrow IPC file
`.arrows`	Arrow IPC stream
`.parquet`	Parquet

--help¶

Print the help message

databow --help

--version¶

Print the version

databow --version

Dot Commands¶

The interactive shell accepts dot commands in addition to SQL. Dot commands start with ., take up a single line, and do not need a terminating semicolon.

.help¶

List the available dot commands

> .help

.last¶

Show the last result in full, without truncation

> SELECT * FROM range(1000);
...
  1000 rows (40 shown)  1 column
> .last

When the table is wide enough, the footer of a truncated result also includes the hint use .last to show entire result.

The previous result is discarded when the next query starts, so after a query fails there is no result to show.

.maxrows¶

Show or set the maximum number of rows to display

> .maxrows 100

When a result has more rows than .maxrows, the first and last rows are shown with the rows in between elided, and a footer reports how many rows were shown. Rows are only elided when that shortens the output: three divider rows stand in for the elided rows, so a result with up to COUNT + 3 rows is shown in full. The default is 40 when writing to a terminal.

Argument	Description
(none)	Show the current value
`COUNT`	Show `COUNT` rows of larger results (`0` for no limit)
`default`	Restore the default

Results of queries run with --query, --file, or stdin are never truncated.

.maxwidth¶

Show or set the maximum table width

> .maxwidth 120

When a result is wider than .maxwidth, long values are truncated with …; if that is not enough, columns in the middle of the result are hidden and replaced with a single … column. The default is the terminal width.

Argument	Description
(none)	Show the current value
`WIDTH`	Limit tables to `WIDTH` characters (`0` for no limit)
`default`	Restore the default

Results of queries run with --query, --file, or stdin are never truncated, and long values wrap to fit the terminal instead.

.mode¶

Show or set the table display style

> .mode ascii-markdown

Accepts the same modes as --mode, and starts from the value given by --mode. Run .mode without an argument to show the current mode and list the available modes.

Show or configure paging of large results

> .pager on
> .pager set_row_threshold 100
> .pager less -SR

Argument	Description
(none)	Show the current pager settings
`automatic`	Use the pager when the result doesn't fit on the screen (default)
`on`	Always use the pager
`off`	Never use the pager
`set_row_threshold COUNT`	In automatic mode, use the pager when more than `COUNT` rows are shown (default: `50`)
`COMMAND`	Set the pager command

In automatic mode, the pager is used when more than 50 rows are shown or the result is wider than the terminal. Results that are truncated to fit the screen don't reach either threshold, so in practice the pager is used for .last and when the limits are raised with .maxrows or .maxwidth.

The pager command is taken from .pager COMMAND, then the DATABOW_PAGER and PAGER environment variables, and defaults to less -SRX (more on Windows). The -S option keeps long lines from wrapping so that wide tables can be scrolled horizontally. If the LESS environment variable is not set, databow sets it to SRX for the pager, so a plain less from PAGER behaves the same way. To use your own less options, set LESS or DATABOW_PAGER.

.quit¶

Exit databow (alias: .exit)

> .quit