tabx

A simple, fast command-line tool to convert between table formats (Markdown, MySQL, PostgreSQL, CSV, TSV) with automatic format detection.

Installation

# Build from source
cargo build --release

# Install globally  
cargo install --path .

Usage

# From file (recommended)
tabx data.csv
tabx input.txt -o csv > output.csv

# From stdin
pbpaste | tabx | pbcopy
cat data.txt | tabx -o csv > clean.csv

# Force input format
mysql -e "SELECT * FROM users" | tabx -i mysql

Examples

# File input (like wc, cat, head, tail)
tabx data.csv > output.tsv
tabx -o csv users.txt > users.csv
tabx -i markdown README.md

# Database output to spreadsheet
mysql -e "SELECT * FROM companies" | tabx -o csv > companies.csv
psql -c "SELECT * FROM users" | tabx | pbcopy

# Pipeline composition
pbpaste | tabx | grep "active" | wc -l
tail -n +3 input.txt | tabx | head -10

Supported Formats

Format	Auto-detection	Example Source
MySQL	+---+ borders	mysql -e "SELECT ..."
PostgreSQL	----+---- separators	psql -c "SELECT ..."
Markdown	|---| separator lines	Documentation tables
CSV	Comma-separated	Data files, Excel exports
TSV	Tab-separated	Spreadsheet exports

Output formats: TSV (default), CSV, or custom delimiter.

Command-line Options

Usage: tabx [OPTIONS] [FILE]

Arguments:
  [FILE]  Input file (reads from stdin if not provided)

Options:
  -i, --input-format <FORMAT>      Force input format (auto, markdown, mysql, postgres, csv, tsv)
  -o, --output-format <FORMAT>     Output format (tsv, csv) [default: tsv]
  -d, --delimiter <CHAR>           Custom output delimiter
      --input-delimiter <CHAR>     Custom input delimiter for CSV/TSV
  -h, --help                       Print help
  -V, --version                    Print version

Delimiter Requirements:

• Must be a single ASCII character
• Control characters are not allowed (except tab \t for TSV)
• Common valid delimiters: , (comma), | (pipe), ; (semicolon), : (colon)

Format Examples

MySQL → TSV

mysql -e "SELECT id, name FROM users" | tabx

+----+-------+          id	name
| id | name  |    →     1	Alice
+----+-------+          2	Bob
|  1 | Alice |
|  2 | Bob   |
+----+-------+

Markdown → CSV

cat docs.md | tabx -o csv

| API | Method  |        API,Method
|-----|---------|   →    /users,GET
| /users | GET  |        /posts,POST
| /posts | POST |

PostgreSQL → TSV

psql -c "SELECT * FROM products" | tabx

 id | name          id	name
----+-------   →    1	Coffee
  1 | Coffee        2	Tea
  2 | Tea

Development

git clone https://github.com/acamino/table-extractor
cd table-extractor
cargo build
cargo test
cargo install --path .