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
Inline markup, pipe characters and multiline values need options matched to the destination renderer.
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 Markdown table API · cURL
curl --fail-with-body --max-time 40 \
'https://api.tableconvert.com/v2/convert/sql-to-markdown' \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $TABLECONVERT_API_KEY" \
--form-string 'data=CREATE TABLE records (task TEXT, owner TEXT, status TEXT);
INSERT INTO records VALUES ('\''Write docs'\'', '\''Alice'\'', '\''Done'\'');
INSERT INTO records VALUES ('\''Review API'\'', '\''Bob'\'', '\''Pending'\'');' \
--form-string 'output[escape]=false' \
--form-string 'output[pretty]=true' \
--form-string 'output[boldFirstRow]=false' \
--form-string 'output[boldFirstColumn]=false' \
--form-string 'output[firstHeader]=true' \
--form-string 'output[align]=l' \
--form-string 'output[simple]=false' \
--form-string 'output[multilineHandling]=preserve' \
--form-string 'output[includeLineNumbers]=false' \
--output 'sql-to-markdown.md'Requires cURL. Download the sample input first when this example uploads a file.
SQL INSERT to Markdown table API · Python
import os
from pathlib import Path
import requests
endpoint = "https://api.tableconvert.com/v2/convert/sql-to-markdown"
headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer " + os.environ["TABLECONVERT_API_KEY"]}
fields = {
"data": (None, "CREATE TABLE records (task TEXT, owner TEXT, status TEXT);\nINSERT INTO records VALUES ('Write docs', 'Alice', 'Done');\nINSERT INTO records VALUES ('Review API', 'Bob', 'Pending');"),
"output[escape]": (None, "false"),
"output[pretty]": (None, "true"),
"output[boldFirstRow]": (None, "false"),
"output[boldFirstColumn]": (None, "false"),
"output[firstHeader]": (None, "true"),
"output[align]": (None, "l"),
"output[simple]": (None, "false"),
"output[multilineHandling]": (None, "preserve"),
"output[includeLineNumbers]": (None, "false"),
}
response = requests.post(endpoint, headers=headers, files=fields, timeout=40)
response.raise_for_status()
Path("sql-to-markdown.md").write_bytes(response.content)Requires Python 3 and requests. Install it with pip install requests.
SQL INSERT to Markdown table API · Node.js
import { writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";
const form = new FormData();
form.set("data", "CREATE TABLE records (task TEXT, owner TEXT, status TEXT);\nINSERT INTO records VALUES ('Write docs', 'Alice', 'Done');\nINSERT INTO records VALUES ('Review API', 'Bob', 'Pending');");
form.set("output[escape]", "false");
form.set("output[pretty]", "true");
form.set("output[boldFirstRow]", "false");
form.set("output[boldFirstColumn]", "false");
form.set("output[firstHeader]", "true");
form.set("output[align]", "l");
form.set("output[simple]", "false");
form.set("output[multilineHandling]", "preserve");
form.set("output[includeLineNumbers]", "false");
const response = await fetch("https://api.tableconvert.com/v2/convert/sql-to-markdown", {
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-markdown.md", 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
Generate a pipe-delimited Markdown table for documentation. Alignment and formatting options apply to table text rather than rendering a full document.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
output[escape] | boolean | false | Escape characters meaningful to the destination markup when cells should remain plain text. |
output[pretty] | boolean | true | Pad Markdown columns for easier source reading; this does not add spreadsheet layout. |
output[boldFirstRow] | boolean | false | Wrap the first row in the destination’s bold-text syntax. |
output[boldFirstColumn] | boolean | false | Wrap the first column in the destination’s bold-text syntax. |
output[firstHeader] | boolean | true | Treat the first table row as a document table header. |
output[align] | string | l | Choose left, center or right alignment for generated table cells. |
output[simple] | boolean | false | Omit the outer Markdown pipes while retaining table rows. |
output[multilineHandling] | string | preserve | Control whether cell line breaks are retained, escaped or represented by HTML breaks. |
output[includeLineNumbers] | boolean | false | Prepend a numbered column to the generated Markdown table. |
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 | The grid becomes pipe-delimited rows plus a generated header alignment separator. |
| Mapping rule 3 | Publish parsed INSERT values as a table without executing SQL; SQL identifier quoting may remain visible and need cleanup. |
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
- The first row is treated as the table header unless an alternate header arrangement is chosen.
- Escape literal pipes and choose multilineHandling to match your Markdown renderer.
- GFM pipe tables are an extension and are not supported by every Markdown implementation.
When to use this API
This conversion in practice
Use a supported SQL INSERT export as the starting dataset for a README or version-controlled document. Reduce the input to supported INSERT rows and check quoted identifiers and literal values.
Markdown table
Keep generated data tables in README files, pull requests or documentation pages.
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.