This is a free and open-source SQL (T-SQL) formatter

It's a fantasic tool with plugins for SSMS, VS Code, there's a website Poor SQL.

If you want to use this in a .NET app you can pull the NuGet which is currently at version 1.4.3.1, but the current release is 1.6.13.

To try it out I downloaded the WinForms App to see what options there are.

WinForms App (simple exe): SqlFormatterWinforms.1.6.13.zip (1644 downloads this version, about 32000 for previous versions)

I then decompiled the SqlFormatterWinforms.exe to see how to setup the formatter.

Another way would be to look at the Demo code on GitHub.

Then look into the MainForm.cs

If you wish to run the app you will need to build the Lib so the app can use the DLL.

PoorMansTSqlFormatter

DoFormatting() is the method which converts your SQL string into the formatted code so this contains a number of items we need to get the basics working.

I created a Console App, added the NuGet and started my journey.

First we need a tokenizer, a parser and formatter.

private static ISqlTokenizer _tokenizer;
private static ISqlTokenParser _parser;
private static ISqlTreeFormatter _formatter;

We can set the defaults for these

_tokenizer = (ISqlTokenizer)new TSqlStandardTokenizer();
_parser = (ISqlTokenParser)new TSqlStandardParser();

The formatter needs a few options. Unfortunately TSqlStandardFormatterOptions isn't in this version of the NuGet.

string indentString = "\t";
int spacesPerTab = 4;
int maxLineWidth = 999;
bool expandCommaLists = true;
bool trailingCommas = false;
bool spaceAfterExpandedComma = false;
bool expandBooleanExpressions = true;
bool expandCaseStatements = true;
bool expandBetweenConditions = true;
bool breakJoinOnSections = false;
bool uppercaseKeywords = true;
bool htmlColoring = true;
bool keywordStandardization = false;

ISqlTreeFormatter underlyingFormatter = new TSqlStandardFormatter(indentString, spacesPerTab, maxLineWidth, expandCommaLists, trailingCommas, spaceAfterExpandedComma, expandBooleanExpressions, expandCaseStatements, expandBetweenConditions, breakJoinOnSections, uppercaseKeywords, htmlColoring, keywordStandardization);

Next we can create the formatter using the options above from the underlyingFormatter.

_formatter = (ISqlTreeFormatter)new HtmlPageWrapper(underlyingFormatter);

Next create a sample piece of sql:

Select * from table

var sqlString = "Select * from table";

And pass it to the tokenizer:

ITokenList tokenList = _tokenizer.TokenizeSQL(sqlString);

With a token list available we can parse this sql:

XmlDocument sql = _parser.ParseSQL(tokenList);

You may notice the Node type in the code.

Now that the SQL is in an XMLDocument we can format it:

string formattedSql = _formatter.FormatSQLTree(sql);

This will produce a HTML doc which you can display in a browser control.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head> </head>
  <body>
    <style type="text/css">
      .SQLCode {
        font-size: 13px;
        font-weight: bold;
        font-family: monospace;
        white-space: pre;
        -o-tab-size: 4;
        -moz-tab-size: 4;
        -webkit-tab-size: 4;
      }
      .SQLComment {
        color: #00aa00;
      }
      .SQLString {
        color: #aa0000;
      }
      .SQLFunction {
        color: #aa00aa;
      }
      .SQLKeyword {
        color: #0000aa;
      }
      .SQLOperator {
        color: #777777;
      }
      .SQLErrorHighlight {
        background-color: #ffff00;
      }
    </style>
    <pre
      class="SQLCode"
    ><span class="SQLKeyword">SELECT</span> <span class="SQLOperator">*</span>
<span class="SQLKeyword">FROM</span> <span class="SQLKeyword">TABLE</span>
</pre>
  </body>
</html>

As this is in <pre> tags the newline characters matter for formatting.

Ouput:

SELECT *
FROM TABLE