The .mode dot command may be used to change the appearance of the tables returned in the terminal output. In addition to customizing the appearance, these modes have additional benefits. This can be useful for presenting DuckDB output elsewhere by redirecting the terminal output to a file. Using the insert mode will build a series of SQL statements that can be used to insert the data at a later point. The markdown mode is particularly useful for building documentation and the latex mode is useful for writing academic papers.

Use .mode directly to query the appearance currently in use.

.mode 

current output mode: duckbox 

.mode markdown SELECT 'quacking intensifies' AS incoming_ducks; 

| incoming_ducks | |----------------------| | quacking intensifies | 

The output appearance can also be adjusted with the .separator command. If using an export mode that relies on a separator (csv or tabs for example), the separator will be reset when the mode is changed. For example, .mode csv will set the separator to a comma (,). Using .separator "|" will then convert the output to be pipe-separated.

.mode csv SELECT 1 AS col_1, 2 AS col_2 UNION ALL SELECT 10 AS col1, 20 AS col_2; 

col_1,col_2 1,2 10,20 

.separator "|" SELECT 1 AS col_1, 2 AS col_2 UNION ALL SELECT 10 AS col1, 20 AS col_2; 

col_1|col_2 1|2 10|20