`sqltidy dialects` - Explore SQL Dialects#

Explore supported SQL dialects and their keywords, data types, and functions.

Synopsis#

sqltidy dialects {list,keywords,datatypes,functions} [OPTIONS]

Description#

The dialects command helps you understand dialect-specific SQL features. Use it to:

See which dialects are supported
View keywords for a specific dialect
List data types available in a dialect
Browse built-in functions

Subcommands#

`list`#

List all supported SQL dialects.

Synopsis:

sqltidy dialects list [OPTIONS]

Options:

--format {table,json}

Output format.

Default: table

Examples:

# Table format
sqltidy dialects list

# JSON format
sqltidy dialects list --format json

Output Example (table):

Supported SQL Dialects
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Dialect       Description
─────────────────────────────────────────────
sqlserver     Microsoft SQL Server (T-SQL)
postgresql    PostgreSQL
mysql         MySQL / MariaDB
oracle        Oracle Database (PL/SQL)
sqlite        SQLite

Output Example (json):

[
  {
    "name": "sqlserver",
    "description": "Microsoft SQL Server (T-SQL)"
  },
  {
    "name": "postgresql",
    "description": "PostgreSQL"
  },
  {
    "name": "mysql",
    "description": "MySQL / MariaDB"
  },
  {
    "name": "oracle",
    "description": "Oracle Database (PL/SQL)"
  },
  {
    "name": "sqlite",
    "description": "SQLite"
  }
]

`keywords`#

Show SQL keywords for a specific dialect.

Synopsis:

sqltidy dialects keywords DIALECT [OPTIONS]

Arguments:

DIALECT: Dialect name: sqlserver, postgresql, mysql, oracle, or sqlite.

Options:

--format {table,json}

Output format.

Default: table

Examples:

# View PostgreSQL keywords
sqltidy dialects keywords postgresql

# JSON format
sqltidy dialects keywords sqlserver --format json

# Pipe to search
sqltidy dialects keywords mysql | grep -i "table"

Output Example:

SQL Keywords for POSTGRESQL
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Total keywords: 472

SELECT     FROM       WHERE      GROUP      ORDER
BY         AS         JOIN       LEFT       RIGHT
INNER      OUTER      CROSS      ON         USING
AND        OR         NOT        IN         EXISTS
BETWEEN    LIKE       ILIKE      CASE       WHEN
THEN       ELSE       END        IS         NULL
...

`datatypes`#

Show data types for a specific dialect.

Synopsis:

sqltidy dialects datatypes DIALECT [OPTIONS]

Arguments:

DIALECT: Dialect name.

Options:

--format {table,json}

Output format.

Default: table

Examples:

# View SQL Server data types
sqltidy dialects datatypes sqlserver

# Compare dialects
sqltidy dialects datatypes postgresql > pg_types.txt
sqltidy dialects datatypes mysql > mysql_types.txt
diff pg_types.txt mysql_types.txt

Output Example:

Data Types for SQLSERVER
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Total data types: 34

Numeric Types:
  INT, BIGINT, SMALLINT, TINYINT, DECIMAL,
  NUMERIC, FLOAT, REAL, MONEY, SMALLMONEY

String Types:
  VARCHAR, NVARCHAR, CHAR, NCHAR, TEXT,
  NTEXT

Date/Time Types:
  DATETIME, DATETIME2, DATE, TIME,
  SMALLDATETIME, DATETIMEOFFSET

Binary Types:
  VARBINARY, BINARY, IMAGE

Other Types:
  BIT, UNIQUEIDENTIFIER, XML, GEOGRAPHY,
  GEOMETRY, HIERARCHYID, SQL_VARIANT

`functions`#

Show built-in functions for a specific dialect.

Synopsis:

sqltidy dialects functions DIALECT [OPTIONS]

Arguments:

DIALECT: Dialect name.

Options:

--format {table,json}

Output format.

Default: table

Examples:

# View Oracle functions
sqltidy dialects functions oracle

# JSON output
sqltidy dialects functions postgresql --format json

# Search for specific functions
sqltidy dialects functions mysql | grep -i "date"

Output Example:

Built-in Functions for POSTGRESQL
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Total functions: 238

String Functions:
  CONCAT, SUBSTRING, UPPER, LOWER, TRIM,
  LTRIM, RTRIM, LENGTH, POSITION, REPLACE

Numeric Functions:
  ABS, CEIL, FLOOR, ROUND, TRUNC, MOD,
  POWER, SQRT, EXP, LN, LOG

Date/Time Functions:
  NOW, CURRENT_DATE, CURRENT_TIME,
  CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, DATE_TRUNC, EXTRACT,
  AGE, DATE_PART

Aggregate Functions:
  COUNT, SUM, AVG, MIN, MAX, ARRAY_AGG,
  STRING_AGG, JSON_AGG

Window Functions:
  ROW_NUMBER, RANK, DENSE_RANK, NTILE,
  LAG, LEAD, FIRST_VALUE, LAST_VALUE

Dialect Differences#

SQL Server (T-SQL)#

Key Features:

TOP clause for limiting results
[] brackets for quoting identifiers
Rich date functions: GETDATE(), DATEADD(), DATEDIFF()
ISNULL() for null handling
Window functions with OVER clause

Examples:

-- Top N rows
SELECT TOP 10 * FROM users

-- Quoted identifiers
SELECT [User Name] FROM [My Table]

-- Date functions
SELECT GETDATE(), DATEADD(day, 7, OrderDate)

PostgreSQL#

Key Features:

LIMIT and OFFSET for pagination
"" double quotes for quoting (when needed)
Advanced JSON/JSONB support
Array types and functions
ILIKE for case-insensitive matching
Rich text search capabilities

Examples:

-- Limit/offset
SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 10 OFFSET 20

-- Case-insensitive search
SELECT * FROM users WHERE name ILIKE '%john%'

-- JSON operations
SELECT data->>'name' FROM json_table

-- Arrays
SELECT ARRAY[1, 2, 3]

MySQL#

Key Features:

Backticks for quoting identifiers
LIMIT with optional OFFSET
Auto-increment with AUTO_INCREMENT
String concatenation with CONCAT()
IFNULL() and COALESCE()

Examples:

-- Backtick identifiers
SELECT `user-name` FROM `my table`

-- Auto-increment
CREATE TABLE users (id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY)

-- String functions
SELECT CONCAT(first_name, ' ', last_name) AS full_name

Oracle (PL/SQL)#

Key Features:

ROWNUM for row limiting
DUAL dummy table
Rich date arithmetic
NVL() for null handling
Hierarchical queries with CONNECT BY

Examples:

-- Row limiting
SELECT * FROM users WHERE ROWNUM <= 10

-- Dual table
SELECT SYSDATE FROM DUAL

-- Hierarchical query
SELECT * FROM employees
CONNECT BY PRIOR employee_id = manager_id
START WITH manager_id IS NULL

SQLite#

Key Features:

Minimal data types (dynamic typing)
LIMIT with optional OFFSET
Limited built-in functions
AUTOINCREMENT for primary keys
Lightweight and embedded

Examples:

-- Limit
SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 10 OFFSET 5

-- Auto-increment
CREATE TABLE users (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT)

-- Date functions (limited)
SELECT datetime('now'), date('now')

Use Cases#

Migration Planning#

Compare keywords and functions between dialects:

# Compare keywords
sqltidy dialects keywords sqlserver > sqlserver_keywords.txt
sqltidy dialects keywords postgresql > postgresql_keywords.txt
diff sqlserver_keywords.txt postgresql_keywords.txt

Learning#

Explore unfamiliar dialects:

# Learn Oracle functions
sqltidy dialects functions oracle | less

# Search for specific capability
sqltidy dialects functions postgresql | grep -i "json"

Validation#

Check if a keyword/function exists in a dialect:

# Does PostgreSQL have ISNULL?
sqltidy dialects functions postgresql | grep -i "isnull"

# What about IFNULL?
sqltidy dialects functions mysql | grep -i "ifnull"

API Reference#

`get_dialect`	Get a dialect by name.
`list_dialects`	List all registered dialect names.
`is_dialect_available`	Check if a dialect is available.

sqltidy dialects - Explore SQL Dialects#

Synopsis#

Description#

Subcommands#

list#

keywords#

datatypes#

functions#

Dialect Differences#

SQL Server (T-SQL)#

PostgreSQL#

MySQL#

Oracle (PL/SQL)#

SQLite#

Use Cases#

Migration Planning#

Learning#

Validation#

API Reference#

See Also#

`sqltidy dialects` - Explore SQL Dialects#

`list`#

`keywords`#

`datatypes`#

`functions`#