SQL Formatter — Beautify & Indent SQL Online

What This Tool Does

Formats and beautifies SQL queries with proper indentation, keyword capitalization, and consistent spacing — entirely in your browser. Supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, SQLite, and standard ANSI SQL. No file is uploaded to any server; your queries are processed locally.

Who This Is For

• Developers reviewing one-line SQL queries copied from ORMs, application logs, or error messages
• DBAs standardizing SQL code style across a team or production codebase
• Data analysts making complex queries readable before sharing with colleagues or in code review
• Anyone copy-pasting SQL from documentation that arrives as a dense, unindented single line

Example: Input: select u.id,count(*) from users u join orders o on u.id=o.user_id where o.status='complete' group by u.id → Output: Properly indented, keyword-uppercased SQL that is immediately readable and ready for review

Formatting Options

The formatter supports the following configuration options:

• Keyword Case — Transform SQL keywords to UPPERCASE, lowercase, or preserve original casing. Most style guides recommend UPPERCASE to visually separate keywords from identifiers.
• Indent Size — Choose 2 or 4 spaces per indentation level. Two spaces is compact and widely used; four spaces provides more visual separation in deeply nested queries.

These options cover the formatting decisions that teams most commonly standardize. The formatter applies consistent clause alignment: each major clause (SELECT, FROM, WHERE, JOIN, ORDER BY) starts on its own line, with subordinate elements indented beneath.

Why Format SQL?

SQL is whitespace-insensitive — the database ignores formatting entirely. Formatting is for humans. Consistently formatted SQL is dramatically easier to read during code review, debug when a query returns unexpected results, and maintain when business requirements change months later.

Unformatted SQL creates friction at every stage of development. A 20-line query compressed to a single line is nearly impossible to reason about. A stored procedure with inconsistent indentation hides logic errors. ORM-generated SQL dumps that are never formatted create knowledge silos where only the ORM author can interpret the output.

Common Formatting Conventions

While there is no single SQL formatting standard, the following conventions are widely adopted:

• Keywords in UPPERCASE: SELECT, FROM, WHERE, JOIN
• Each major clause on its own line
• Column lists indented under SELECT, one per line for complex queries
• JOIN conditions indented under the JOIN keyword
• Subqueries and CTEs indented one additional level
• Consistent use of trailing or leading commas (this tool uses trailing commas)

When to Format

• Before committing SQL to version control — clean diffs, easier reviews
• When debugging ORM-generated queries — paste the raw SQL and make it readable
• When documenting database queries in technical documentation or runbooks
• After generating SQL with a query builder — formatting is the final polish step
• When onboarding new team members — formatted queries are self-documenting