One-liner for running queries against CSV files with SQLite

I figured out how to run a SQL query directly against a CSV file using the sqlite3 command-line utility:

sqlite3 :memory: -cmd '.mode csv' -cmd '.import taxi.csv taxi' \
  'SELECT passenger_count, COUNT(*), AVG(total_amount) FROM taxi GROUP BY passenger_count'

This uses the special :memory: filename to open an in-memory database. Then it uses two -cmd options to turn on CSV mode and import the taxi.csv file into a table called taxi. Then it runs the SQL query.

You can get taxi.csv by downloading the compressed file from here and running:

7z e -aos taxi.csv.7z

I figured this out while commenting on this issue.

The output looks like this:

"",128020,32.2371511482553
0,42228,17.0214016766151
1,1533197,17.6418833067999
2,286461,18.0975870711456
3,72852,17.9153958710923
4,25510,18.452774990196
5,50291,17.2709248175672
6,32623,17.6002964166367
7,2,87.17
8,2,95.705
9,1,113.6

Add -cmd '.mode column' to output in columns instead:

$ sqlite3 :memory: -cmd '.mode csv' -cmd '.import taxi.csv taxi' -cmd '.mode column' \
    'SELECT passenger_count, COUNT(*), AVG(total_amount) FROM taxi GROUP BY passenger_count'
passenger_count  COUNT(*)  AVG(total_amount)
---------------  --------  -----------------
                 128020    32.2371511482553 
0                42228     17.0214016766151 
1                1533197   17.6418833067999 
2                286461    18.0975870711456 
3                72852     17.9153958710923 
4                25510     18.452774990196  
5                50291     17.2709248175672 
6                32623     17.6002964166367 
7                2         87.17            
8                2         95.705           
9                1         113.6            

Or use -cmd '.mode markdown' to get a Markdown table:

A full list of output modes can be seen like this:

% sqlite3 -cmd '.help mode'
.mode MODE ?TABLE?       Set output mode
   MODE is one of:
     ascii     Columns/rows delimited by 0x1F and 0x1E
     box       Tables using unicode box-drawing characters
     csv       Comma-separated values
     column    Output in columns.  (See .width)
     html      HTML <table> code
     insert    SQL insert statements for TABLE
     json      Results in a JSON array
     line      One value per line
     list      Values delimited by "|"
     markdown  Markdown table format
     quote     Escape answers as for SQL
     table     ASCII-art table
     tabs      Tab-separated values
     tcl       TCL list elements

Other options

There are a whole bunch of other tools that can be used for this kind of thing!

My own sqlite-utils memory command can load data from JSON, CSV or TSV into an in-memory database and run a query against it. It's a LOT slower than using sqlite3 directly though.

dsq is a tool that does this kind of thing (and a lot more). Author Phil Eaton compiled a collection of benchmarks of other similar tools, and his benchmarking script demonstrates how to use each one of them.

Created 2022-06-20T16:00:51-07:00, updated 2022-06-20T19:06:35-07:00 · History · Edit