loq

Appearance

XML Output ​

Export query results as XML documents.

Usage ​

bash
loq -o:XML "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

Output Format ​

xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<results>
  <row>
    <name>Alice</name>
    <age>32</age>
    <city>New York</city>
  </row>
  <row>
    <name>Bob</name>
    <age>28</age>
    <city>San Francisco</city>
  </row>
</results>

Output to File ​

bash
# To file
loq -o:XML --ofile:output.xml "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

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

Options ​

Element Style (Default) ​

Values as element content:

bash
loq -o:XML "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

Output:

xml
<row>
  <name>Alice</name>
  <age>32</age>
</row>

Attribute Style ​

Values as attributes:

bash
loq -o:XML -oStyle:attribute "SELECT * FROM data.csv"

Output:

xml
<row name="Alice" age="32" city="New York"/>

Custom Root Element ​

bash
loq -o:XML -oRootElement:users "SELECT * FROM users.csv"

Output:

xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<users>
  <row>...</row>
</users>

Custom Row Element ​

bash
loq -o:XML -oRowElement:user "SELECT * FROM users.csv"

Output:

xml
<results>
  <user>
    <name>Alice</name>
  </user>
</results>

Combined Options ​

bash
loq -o:XML -oRootElement:customers -oRowElement:customer \
          "SELECT * FROM customers.csv"

Output:

xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<customers>
  <customer>
    <name>Alice</name>
    <email>alice@example.com</email>
  </customer>
</customers>

Type Handling ​

All values are converted to strings in XML:

SQL TypeXML Output
Integer<age>32</age>
Float<price>19.99</price>
Boolean<active>true</active>
String<name>Alice</name>
NULL<email/> (empty element)
DateTime<timestamp>2024-01-15T14:30:00</timestamp>

Special Characters ​

XML special characters are automatically escaped:

CharacterEscaped
<&lt;
>&gt;
&&amp;
"&quot;
'&apos;
xml
<description>&lt;b&gt;Bold&lt;/b&gt; &amp; italic</description>

Examples ​

Basic Export ​

bash
loq -o:XML --ofile:users.xml "SELECT * FROM users.csv"

Filtered Export ​

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

With Custom Elements ​

bash
loq -o:XML -oRootElement:report -oRowElement:entry \
          --ofile:report.xml \
          "SELECT date, category, amount FROM sales.csv"

Output:

xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<report>
  <entry>
    <date>2024-01-15</date>
    <category>Electronics</category>
    <amount>1500.00</amount>
  </entry>
</report>

Attribute Style for Compact Output ​

bash
loq -o:XML -oStyle:attribute --ofile:data.xml \
          "SELECT id, name, status FROM items.csv"

Output:

xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<results>
  <row id="1" name="Widget" status="active"/>
  <row id="2" name="Gadget" status="inactive"/>
</results>

Processing XML ​

Using xmllint ​

bash
# Pretty print
loq -o:XML "SELECT * FROM data.csv" | xmllint --format -

# XPath query
loq -o:XML "SELECT * FROM data.csv" | xmllint --xpath "//row[age>30]/name/text()" -

Using xq (yq for XML) ​

bash
# Filter rows
loq -o:XML "SELECT * FROM data.csv" | xq '.results.row[] | select(.age > 30)'

XSLT Transformation ​

bash
loq -o:XML --ofile:data.xml "SELECT * FROM data.csv"
xsltproc transform.xsl data.xml > output.html

Integration ​

Web Services ​

bash
# POST XML to API
loq -o:XML "SELECT * FROM data.csv" | \
  curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/xml" \
       --data-binary @- https://api.example.com/import

Database Import ​

bash
# Generate XML for SQL Server bulk import
loq -o:XML -oRootElement:data -oRowElement:row \
          --ofile:import.xml "SELECT * FROM source.csv"

Best Practices ​

Use Meaningful Element Names ​

bash
loq -o:XML -oRootElement:customers -oRowElement:customer \
          "SELECT id, name, email FROM customers.csv"

Column Aliases for Clean XML ​

sql
SELECT
    user_id AS userId,
    first_name AS firstName,
    last_name AS lastName
FROM users.csv

Results in:

xml
<row>
  <userId>1</userId>
  <firstName>Alice</firstName>
  <lastName>Smith</lastName>
</row>

Handle NULLs ​

NULL values create empty elements:

xml
<row>
  <name>Bob</name>
  <email/>
</row>

Validate Output ​

bash
loq -o:XML --ofile:output.xml "SELECT * FROM data.csv"
xmllint --noout output.xml && echo "Valid XML"

Troubleshooting ​

Invalid Element Names ​

Column names with spaces or special characters are sanitized:

sql
SELECT "First Name", "Last Name" FROM users.csv
-- Becomes: <First_Name>, <Last_Name>

Large Files ​

For very large exports:

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

Encoding Issues ​

XML output is UTF-8 encoded by default:

xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

See Also ​

All rights reserved.