Thread: psql format result as markdown tables

Hello

I wonder if someone knows how to configure psql to output results as
markdown tables. 
Then instead of :

SELECT * FROM (values(1,2),(3,4)) as t;
 column1 | column2 
---------+---------
       1 |       2
       3 |       4

Get the result as :
SELECT * FROM (values(1,2),(3,4)) as t;
| column1 | column2| 
|---------|--------|-
|       1 |       2|
|       3 |       4|

Thanks by advance

Hi Nicolas!

* Nicolas Paris (niparisco@gmail.com) wrote:
> I wonder if someone knows how to configure psql to output results as
> markdown tables.

Unfortunately, I don't believe we support markdown as an output format
as yet.  To change the output format, you can use '\pset format html'.

You can see the list of formats supported by psql here:

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/app-psql.html

Look for 'format' or 'asciidoc' in that page to find the list quickly.

I suspect that if someone wanted to write the code to have markdown be
available that it would certainly be accepted, as that's definitely a
popular format.

Thanks!

Stephen

Greetings Melvin,

* Melvin Davidson (melvin6925@gmail.com) wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 13, 2018 at 4:50 AM, Nicolas Paris <niparisco@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I wonder if someone knows how to configure psql to output results as
> > markdown tables.
> > Then instead of :
> >
> > SELECT * FROM (values(1,2),(3,4)) as t;
> >  column1 | column2
> > ---------+---------
> >        1 |       2
> >        3 |       4
> >
> > Get the result as :
> > SELECT * FROM (values(1,2),(3,4)) as t;
> > | column1 | column2|
> > |---------|--------|-
> > |       1 |       2|
> > |       3 |       4|
> >
> > Thanks by advance
>
> *A. You have not graced us with PostgreSQL version and O/S*

While it can make a difference, it doesn't in this case, as far as I can
tell.  You can see the list of formats supported by each version of
PostgreSQL by going to:

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/app-psql.html

and then you can walk backwards through the various releases.

> *B. Your two examples appear exactly the same.*

Not true, actually, if you look carefully you'll see that there's a set
of pipes down the left-hand side, and pipes all down the middle (instead
of a '+' on the linebreak between the header and the data).  Those kinds
of differences are what would make having an actual markdown output
format for psql particularly useful as, otherwise, you have to
hand-massage it or use another tool.

> *C. Have you looked at https://donatstudios.com/CsvToMarkdownTable
> <https://donatstudios.com/CsvToMarkdownTable> ?*

That might be helpful in this case, though it would require sending data
to an 3rd party, which might not be ideal.  There's a number of
csv2markdown tools out there though which could be installed locally.
Not quite as nice as having the support in psql for it though.

Thanks!

Stephen

Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net> writes:
> I suspect that if someone wanted to write the code to have markdown be
> available that it would certainly be accepted, as that's definitely a
> popular format.

Somebody was working on that awhile ago,

https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/CAAYBy8YU4pXYKDHeQhsA_%3DFC93yOBZp5j1h%3DBSSAo9-oLcwNww%40mail.gmail.com

Seems to have lost interest though ...

            regards, tom lane