Things to check before integrating
Before you integrate
Reduce the input to supported INSERT rows and check quoted identifiers and literal values.
Before you integrate
A blank custom template can return help text; define the intended template and its escaping before production use.
Code examples
These examples send the sample as multipart/form-data and save the returned bytes unchanged. Set TABLECONVERT_API_KEY in your environment.
SQL INSERT to custom text template API · cURL
curl --fail-with-body --max-time 40 \
'https://api.tableconvert.com/v2/convert/sql-to-magic' \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $TABLECONVERT_API_KEY" \
--form-string 'data=CREATE TABLE records (sku TEXT, item TEXT, quantity TEXT);
INSERT INTO records VALUES ('\''P101'\'', '\''Notebook'\'', '\''12'\'');
INSERT INTO records VALUES ('\''P102'\'', '\''Marker'\'', '\''8'\'');' \
--form-string 'output[headerTpl]={F |}
' \
--form-string 'output[rowsTpl]={F |}
' \
--form-string 'output[footerTpl]={F |}' \
--form-string 'output[builtin]=' \
--output 'sql-to-magic.txt'Requires cURL. Download the sample input first when this example uploads a file.
SQL INSERT to custom text template API · Python
import os
from pathlib import Path
import requests
endpoint = "https://api.tableconvert.com/v2/convert/sql-to-magic"
headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer " + os.environ["TABLECONVERT_API_KEY"]}
fields = {
"data": (None, "CREATE TABLE records (sku TEXT, item TEXT, quantity TEXT);\nINSERT INTO records VALUES ('P101', 'Notebook', '12');\nINSERT INTO records VALUES ('P102', 'Marker', '8');"),
"output[headerTpl]": (None, "{F |}\n"),
"output[rowsTpl]": (None, "{F |}\n"),
"output[footerTpl]": (None, "{F |}"),
"output[builtin]": (None, ""),
}
response = requests.post(endpoint, headers=headers, files=fields, timeout=40)
response.raise_for_status()
Path("sql-to-magic.txt").write_bytes(response.content)Requires Python 3 and requests. Install it with pip install requests.
SQL INSERT to custom text template API · Node.js
import { writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";
const form = new FormData();
form.set("data", "CREATE TABLE records (sku TEXT, item TEXT, quantity TEXT);\nINSERT INTO records VALUES ('P101', 'Notebook', '12');\nINSERT INTO records VALUES ('P102', 'Marker', '8');");
form.set("output[headerTpl]", "{F |}\n");
form.set("output[rowsTpl]", "{F |}\n");
form.set("output[footerTpl]", "{F |}");
form.set("output[builtin]", "");
const response = await fetch("https://api.tableconvert.com/v2/convert/sql-to-magic", {
method: "POST",
headers: { Authorization: "Bearer " + process.env.TABLECONVERT_API_KEY },
body: form,
signal: AbortSignal.timeout(40_000),
});
if (!response.ok) {
throw new Error("HTTP " + response.status + ": " + await response.text());
}
await writeFile("sql-to-magic.txt", Buffer.from(await response.arrayBuffer()));Requires Node.js 20 or later with built-in fetch, FormData and Blob.
Authentication
Send Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY. Let the HTTP client set the multipart boundary; do not set Content-Type manually.
Keep production API keys in server-side environment variables.
Request parameters
Supported INSERT statements and their column lists are parsed as table text. The API does not execute SQL against a database.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
data | string | — | Inline SQL table content. Choose one of data, file or url. |
file | binary | — | Upload a sql file using multipart/form-data. |
url | string | — | A supported publicly accessible HTTP or HTTPS file URL. |
Send one source: data, file, or url. The examples below use the source mode appropriate for this format.
Output options
Apply TableConvert Magic row templates to tabular records. Magic is a substitution system for custom text, not a separate file format or an AI transformation.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
output[headerTpl] | string | Empty string | Template used for the first row/header portion of the custom text export. |
output[rowsTpl] | string | Empty string | Template repeated for the custom export’s intermediate data rows. |
output[footerTpl] | string | Empty string | Template used for the last-row/footer portion of the custom text export. |
output[builtin] | string | Empty string | Populate the custom template from a built-in preset; explicit template fields remain authoritative. |
Conversion rules
| Case | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Mapping rule 1 | Supported INSERT column names and value tuples become a header and data rows without SQL execution. |
| Mapping rule 2 | Templates substitute cells and row counters into a header, repeated row body and footer. |
| Mapping rule 3 | Bind parsed INSERT columns to custom placeholders; the template is not a SQL engine and cannot evaluate source expressions. |
How the input is read
- Use explicit INSERT column lists and supported value tuples for predictable column mapping.
- This is text parsing, not arbitrary SQL query evaluation, schema migration or database access.
- Prepare computed expressions, dialect-specific literals and complex dumps before importing.
- Quoted identifier text and source literal semantics may need cleanup after extraction; verify nulls and escaping.
How the output is written
- Configure headerTpl, rowsTpl and footerTpl or select a built-in template.
- Column placeholders use the table position/header and row counters rather than arbitrary object traversal.
- The destination syntax and escaping remain your template’s responsibility; test a small sample first.
When to use this API
This conversion in practice
Use a supported SQL INSERT export as the starting dataset for an application-specific text export. Reduce the input to supported INSERT rows and check quoted identifiers and literal values.
Custom text template
Generate repeated text such as URL lists, command fragments or application-specific import lines.
Responses and errors
| HTTP status | Description |
|---|---|
200 | text/plain; charset=utf-8 |
400 | Invalid input or conversion parameters. |
402 | Insufficient credits for this request. |
403 | Missing or invalid API key. |
413 | The input exceeds the configured request limit. |
415 | Unsupported input media type. |
429 | Rate limit exceeded. |
500 | The conversion could not be completed. |
503 | The renderer is unavailable or the request timed out. |
Check the response before retrying. A new HTTP request is a new conversion and may use credits again.
Limits, billing and versions
Local previews accept up to 200 KB. The current API implementation allows one uploaded file up to 50 MiB, limits each multipart text field to 1 MiB, and gives v2 conversion tasks a 30-second deadline. Deployment limits may be stricter. Read the returned error before retrying; some parser or renderer failures return HTTP 500.
Live calls follow the API credit policy. Failed conversions are refunded; a completed conversion is not undone if the download connection later fails.
View API pricing and creditsUsing API v1?
This page documents v2, which returns the output directly. API v1 wraps the result in a JSON envelope. Check the overview before changing an existing integration.
API overviewReferences and format specifications
Format references explain the underlying syntax. The conversion rules and samples above describe TableConvert’s implementation.