Automatically Open SQLite Query Results in Excel

The SQLite command line interface has a handy little feature where you can open your SQL query results in an Excel file.

When you run a query, instead of the query being output to your console as it normally would, it instead opens as an Excel spreadsheet (or LibreOffice, or whatever program your system uses to open CSV files).

You have two options when doing this:

  • Use a temporary file
  • Use a permanent file (i.e. save it for later)

This article covers both options.

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Format SQLite Query Results as a Comma-Separated List

SQLite has several modes and settings that enable you to output query results as a comma-separated list.

For example, you can use the .separator dot command to specify a comma as the separator. Or you could use the “quote” mode to format the output as string literals.

However, for the purposes of this article, I’m going to use csv mode, which formats the results as a comma-separated list, as well as with double quotes around strings. Internal double quotes are double-quoted.

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