lacspace-sql

Run SQL over your CSV, JSON, NDJSON and Excel files — no database.

terminal

npx lacspace-sql "SELECT * FROM ./data.csv LIMIT 5"

What it does

Everything, in one command

lacspace-sql loads a file into memory and runs a genuine SQL engine over it — a tokenizer, parser and evaluator, not a regex. It now joins two files (INNER/LEFT/cross, aliases, qualified columns), evaluates arithmetic and scalar functions (UPPER/LOWER/TRIM/SUBSTR/CONCAT/COALESCE/ROUND/ABS…) with CASE WHEN, matches with BETWEEN/NOT IN/NOT LIKE/LIKE ESCAPE, combines result sets with UNION/UNION ALL, and reads a glob of files (`'./data/*.csv'`) or stdin as one table. Group and aggregate, order by multiple keys with NULLS FIRST/LAST, then print a table or Markdown or serialise to JSON/NDJSON/CSV/Excel — with --watch to re-run on change. Still one file per table; no subqueries or window functions yet.

Features

What's inside

Any data file

CSV, JSON, NDJSON or Excel — name the file right in the FROM clause.

Real SQL

SELECT, DISTINCT, WHERE (=, !=, <, LIKE, IN, IS NULL, AND/OR/NOT, parens), ORDER BY, LIMIT/OFFSET.

Group & aggregate

GROUP BY with COUNT/SUM/AVG/MIN/MAX (and COUNT(DISTINCT)) plus HAVING.

Smart typing

Numeric strings compare numerically; columns match case-insensitively.

Query → convert

Pretty table by default, or -f json|ndjson|csv|md to export the result in one step.

Typed library

query() / runQuery() plus parseSql() for the AST — build on the engine.

Joins across files

INNER / LEFT / cross joins between two files, with aliases and qualified columns.

Expressions & CASE

Arithmetic + UPPER/LOWER/TRIM/SUBSTR/CONCAT/COALESCE/ROUND/ABS… and CASE WHEN in SELECT.

UNION & globs

UNION / UNION ALL, plus a glob FROM ('./exports/*.csv') or stdin read as one table.

Live --watch

Re-runs the query whenever the source file changes — a live view over your data.

How to use

Copy, paste, done

Real commands and snippets — from a one-liner to the typed library.

Join two files

terminal

lacspace-sql "SELECT u.name, o.amount, o.qty*o.price AS total \
  FROM users.csv u JOIN orders.json o ON u.id = o.user_id ORDER BY total DESC"

Joins a CSV and a JSON on a key, with a computed column.

CASE WHEN grading

terminal

lacspace-sql "SELECT name, CASE WHEN revenue>=1000 THEN 'A' \
  WHEN revenue>=500 THEN 'B' ELSE 'C' END AS grade FROM ./leads.csv"

Bucket rows with a CASE expression.

Glob many files → Markdown

terminal

lacspace-sql "SELECT city, COUNT(*) AS n FROM './exports/*.csv' \
  GROUP BY city ORDER BY n DESC" -f md

Reads every matching file as one table, emits a Markdown table.

From stdin

terminal

cat leads.csv | lacspace-sql "SELECT UPPER(name) AS name FROM stdin \
  WHERE city='Kathmandu'" --stdin csv

Pipe data straight in as the `stdin` table.

Use it as a library

typescript

import { query, runQuery } from "lacspace-sql";
const rows = await query("SELECT * FROM ./data.csv WHERE age >= 30");
// or runQuery(sql, alreadyLoadedRows) — pure, no file I/O

Good for

What people build with it

✓ Explore a scraped or leads export

✓ Filter + reshape a CSV without a spreadsheet

✓ Aggregate data inside a shell script or CI

✓ Convert a file while you query it

Start now

Run lacspace-sql today

Free, open-source, no API keys. It's a CLI and a typed library.

terminal

npx lacspace-sql "SELECT * FROM ./data.csv LIMIT 5"

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