loq

Appearance

CSV / TSV Output ​

Export query results as comma-separated values (CSV) or tab-separated values (TSV).

Usage ​

bash
# CSV (default)
loq "SELECT * FROM data.csv"
loq -o:CSV "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

# TSV
loq -o:TSV "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

Output to File ​

bash
# To file
loq -o:CSV --ofile:output.csv "SELECT * FROM data.csv"
loq -o:TSV --ofile:output.tsv "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

# To stdout (default)
loq -o:CSV "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

Output Format ​

CSV ​

csv
name,age,city
Alice,32,New York
Bob,28,San Francisco

TSV ​

tsv
name	age	city
Alice	32	New York
Bob	28	San Francisco

Options ​

Headers ​

Control header row output:

bash
# With headers (default)
loq -o:CSV "SELECT name, age FROM users.csv"

# Without headers
loq -o:CSV -headers:OFF "SELECT name, age FROM users.csv"

Custom Separator ​

Use any character as separator:

bash
# Pipe-delimited
loq -o:CSV -oSeparator:"|" "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

# Semicolon-delimited (European CSV)
loq -o:CSV -oSeparator:";" "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

Output Codepage ​

Specify output encoding:

bash
# UTF-8 (default)
loq -o:CSV -oCodepage:UTF8 "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

# UTF-16
loq -o:CSV -oCodepage:UTF16 "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

# Windows-1252
loq -o:CSV -oCodepage:1252 "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

Quoting Behavior ​

Values are quoted when they contain:

  • The delimiter character (comma for CSV)
  • Double quotes
  • Newlines
csv
name,description
Widget,"A small, useful item"
Gadget,"Contains ""special"" characters"

NULL Handling ​

NULL values are output as empty fields:

csv
name,email
Alice,alice@example.com
Bob,
Carol,carol@example.com

Examples ​

Basic Export ​

bash
loq -o:CSV --ofile:users.csv "SELECT * FROM users.csv WHERE active = true"

Filtered Export ​

bash
loq -o:CSV --ofile:errors.csv \
          "SELECT timestamp, level, message FROM logs.csv WHERE level = 'error'"

Aggregated Export ​

bash
loq -o:CSV --ofile:summary.csv \
          "SELECT category, COUNT(*), SUM(amount)
           FROM sales.csv
           GROUP BY category"

Selected Columns with Aliases ​

bash
loq -o:CSV --ofile:report.csv \
          "SELECT
               name AS 'Customer Name',
               total AS 'Total Amount',
               date AS 'Order Date'
           FROM orders.csv"

Pipeline to Other Tools ​

bash
# Pipe to grep
loq -o:CSV "SELECT * FROM logs.csv" | grep error

# Pipe to awk
loq -o:CSV "SELECT name, amount FROM sales.csv" | awk -F',' '{sum += $2} END {print sum}'

# Pipe to sort
loq -o:CSV -headers:OFF "SELECT * FROM data.csv" | sort -t',' -k2 -n

Combining with Unix Tools ​

Count Lines ​

bash
loq -o:CSV -headers:OFF "SELECT * FROM data.csv WHERE status = 'active'" | wc -l

Extract Column ​

bash
loq -o:CSV -headers:OFF "SELECT name FROM users.csv" | sort | uniq

Head/Tail ​

bash
# First 10 rows (including header)
loq -o:CSV "SELECT * FROM data.csv LIMIT 10"

# Using head
loq -o:CSV "SELECT * FROM data.csv" | head -20

Best Practices ​

Use Appropriate Delimiter ​

  • Comma (,): Standard, works with most tools
  • Tab: Better for data with commas in values
  • Pipe (|): Good for data with commas and tabs

Consider Headers ​

  • With headers: For human reading, spreadsheet import
  • Without headers: For piping to other tools, appending to files

Handle Special Characters ​

Data with commas or quotes is automatically escaped:

sql
SELECT 'Value, with comma' AS col1
-- Output: "Value, with comma"

Use Aliases for Clean Headers ​

sql
SELECT
    customer_id AS 'Customer ID',
    total_amount AS 'Total Amount'
FROM orders.csv

Spreadsheet Import ​

CSV files can be opened directly in:

  • Microsoft Excel
  • Google Sheets
  • LibreOffice Calc
  • Numbers

Excel Tips ​

  1. Open Excel
  2. File > Import > CSV
  3. Select comma delimiter
  4. Choose column types

Google Sheets Tips ​

  1. Open Google Sheets
  2. File > Import
  3. Upload CSV
  4. Select separator type

Troubleshooting ​

Wrong Delimiter Detected ​

If spreadsheet doesn't parse correctly:

bash
# Use tab for cleaner import
loq -o:TSV --ofile:data.tsv "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

Encoding Issues ​

For non-ASCII characters:

bash
loq -o:CSV -oCodepage:UTF8 --ofile:data.csv "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

Large Files ​

For very large exports:

bash
# Stream directly to file
loq -o:CSV --ofile:huge.csv "SELECT * FROM huge.csv"

See Also ​

All rights reserved.