Quickstart

q - Text as Data

Overview

q is a CLI tool that treats ordinary files as database tables and allows you to run SQL queries directly on delimited files (CSV, TSV, etc.) and multi-file sqlite databases.

Quick Start

Run SQL query on a file

sc q query file "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ./clicks_file.csv WHERE c3 > 32.3"

Run SQL query on stdin

ps -ef | sc q query stdin "SELECT UID, COUNT(*) cnt FROM - GROUP BY UID ORDER BY cnt DESC LIMIT 3"

Passthrough to q CLI

sc q _ <q-args>

Key Features

• SQL Support: Full SQL support including WHERE, GROUP BY, JOINs, etc.
• Automatic Detection: Automatic column name and type detection
• Multiple Formats: Supports CSV, TSV, and other delimited formats
• SQLite Support: Query multi-file sqlite databases
• Pipe Support: Accept input from stdin for pipeline processing
• Encoding Support: Full support for multiple character encodings

Installation

Visit https://harelba.github.io/q/ for installation instructions for your platform.

Usage Examples

Filter CSV file

q "SELECT * FROM data.csv WHERE column > 100"

Aggregate data

q "SELECT category, COUNT(*) as count FROM sales.csv GROUP BY category"

Join files

q "SELECT a.*, b.value FROM file1.csv a JOIN file2.csv b ON a.id = b.id"

Process command output

ps -ef | q -H "SELECT UID, COUNT(*) FROM - GROUP BY UID"

Notes

• Use -H flag to treat first row as headers
• Supports complex SQL queries with subqueries
• Can join multiple files and sqlite databases
• Output can be piped to other tools for further processing