mdb-sql(1) Executable programs or shell commands mdb-sql(1) NAME mdb-sql - SQL interface to MDB Tools SYNOPSIS mdb-sql [-HFp] [-d char] [-i file] [-o file] [database] mdb-sql -h|--help mdb-sql --version DESCRIPTION mdb-sql is a utility program distributed with MDB Tools. mdb-sql allows querying of an MDB database using a limited SQL subset lan- guage. OPTIONS -H, --no-header Suppress header row. -F, --no-footer Suppress footer row. -p, --no-pretty-print Turn off pretty printing. By default results are printed in an ascii table format which looks nice but is not conducive to manipulating the output with unix tools. This option prints output plainly in a tab separated format. -d, --delimiter char Specify an alternative column delimiter. If no delimiter is speci- fied, columns will be delimited by a tab character if pretty print- ing (-p) is turned off. If pretty printing is enabled this option is meaningless. -i, --input file Specify an input file. This option allows an input file containing the SQL to be passed to mdb-sql. See Notes. -o, --output file Specify an output file. This option allows the name of an output file to be used instead of stdout. --version Print the mdbtools version and exit. COMMANDS mdb-sql in interactive mode takes some special commands. connect to database If no database was specified on the command line this command is necessary before any querys are issued. It also allows the switching of databases once in the tool. disconnect Will disconnect from the current database. go Each batch is sent to the parser using the 'go' command. reset A batch can be cleared using the 'reset' command. list tables The list tables command will display a list of available tables in this database, similar to the mdb-tables utility on the command line. describe table <table> Will display the column information for the specified table. quit Will exit the tool. SQL LANGUAGE The currently implemented SQL subset is quite small, supporting only single table queries, no aggregates, and limited support for WHERE clauses. Here is a brief synopsis of the supported language. select: SELECT <top clause> [* | <column list>] FROM <table> WHERE <where clause> <limit clause> top clause: TOP <integer> [ PERCENT ] column list: <column> [, <column list>] where clause: <column> <operator> <literal> [AND <where clause>] limit clause: LIMIT <integer> operator: =, =>, =<, <>, like, ilike, <, > literal: integers, floating point numbers, or string literal in single quotes NOTES When passing a file (-i) or piping output to mdb-sql the final 'go' is op- tional. This allow constructs like echo "Select * from Table1" | mdb-sql mydb.mdb to work correctly. The -i command can be passed the string 'stdin' to test entering text as if using a pipe. The 'like' operator performs a case-sensitive pattern match, with ANSI- style wildcards. An underscore in the pattern will match any single charac- ter, and a percent sign will match any run of characters. The 'ilike' operator is similar, but performs a case-insensitive pattern match. ENVIRONMENT LC_COLLATE Defines the locale for string-comparison operations. See locale(1). MDB_JET3_CHARSET Defines the charset of the input JET3 (access 97) file. Default is CP1252. See iconv(1). MDBICONV Defines the output charset. Default is UTF-8. mdbtools must have been compiled with iconv. MDBOPTS Colon-separated list of options: * debug_like * debug_write * debug_usage * debug_ole * debug_row * debug_props * debug_all is a shortcut for all debug_* options * no_memo (deprecated; has no effect) * use_index (experimental; requires libmswstr) HISTORY mdb-sql first appeared in MDB Tools 0.3. SEE ALSO mdb-array(1) mdb-count(1) mdb-export(1) mdb-header(1) mdb-hexdump(1) mdb- import(1) mdb-json(1) mdb-parsecsv(1) mdb-prop(1) mdb-queries(1) mdb- schema(1) mdb-tables(1) mdb-ver(1) isql(1) AUTHORS The mdb-sql utility was written by Brian Bruns. BUGS The supported SQL syntax is a very limited subset and deficient in several ways. MDBTools 1.0.1 27 August 2026 mdb-sql(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | COMMANDS | SQL LANGUAGE | NOTES | ENVIRONMENT | HISTORY | SEE ALSO | AUTHORS | BUGS
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