Working with data

Exporting and copying

Copy a cell, a block of cells or the rows you've loaded to the clipboard, or export a whole result, however many rows it has, to a CSV, TSV, JSON or SQL file.

Selecting cells

Do this	What it selects
Click	One cell
Drag	A block; the grid scrolls when you drag past its edge
⇧-click, or `⇧` with the arrow keys	Extends the selection from the first cell
Click or drag row numbers	Whole rows
`⌘A`	Every loaded row
`Esc`	Clears the selection

⌘ with an arrow key jumps to the first or last row or column; Page Up, Page Down, Home and End move by a screen or to the ends.

In a table tab, selecting two or more cells shows their count, sum and average on the WHERE line.

Six total cells selected in the orders grid; the WHERE line reads 6 cells · sum 727.85 · avg 121.31.

Copying cells

Key	What it copies
`⌘C` on one cell	The value as it is, with no quoting. A NULL copies as `NULL`
`⌘C` on a block	The block as CSV
`⇧⌘C`	The block as CSV with the column names as its first line

The CSV quotes values the standard way (RFC 4180), leaves NULL cells empty, and uses the values you've staged but not yet committed. A toast confirms what was copied, such as Copied 6 cells · CSV, or Copied 3 rows · CSV when you selected whole rows.

Right-click a cell for Copy and Copy as CSV with headers too.

While you're presenting, sensitive values show as dots on screen, but copying puts the real value on the clipboard. See Sensitive columns and presenting.

Copying the results

To copy everything you've loaded, without selecting it, use ⌘K or the … menu at the end of the WHERE line (in a query tab, at the top of the results):

The … menu of the orders table: Insert row, Copy loaded 1,000 rows as CSV, Copy loaded 1,000 rows as TSV, Copy all results as CSV, Copy all results as TSV, Export results… ⇧⌘E, Clear results and Timings.

Command	What it copies
Copy results as CSV / TSV	Every row, with a header line, when all of them are loaded
Copy loaded 1,000 rows as CSV / TSV	The rows loaded so far, when more remain
Copy all results as CSV / TSV	The whole result, including rows not loaded yet

Copy Results as CSV is also in the menu bar under Query.

Copy all results appears only while rows remain unloaded. Rowkery runs the whole query again and streams it to the clipboard; the tab reads Copying with a row count and a Cancel button. A toast says Copied 84,000 rows · CSV when it's done.

⌘K with copy typed: Duplicate row, Copy all results as CSV, Copy all results as TSV, Copy loaded 1,000 rows as TSV and Copy loaded 1,000 rows as CSV.

Exporting results

Export results… ⇧⌘E writes a whole result to a file. It's also in the … menu, in ⌘K, behind the query tab's Export button, and in the menu bar under Query › Export Results….

Choose where to save

The Mac's save dialog opens, suggesting the table's name, such as orders.csv. Pick a format from the list, or type the extension yourself.

Watch it run

Rowkery runs the query and writes the file batch by batch as the rows arrive. The tab reads Exporting with a row count. Cancel, Esc or ⌘. stops it.

Find the file

A toast says how many rows went to which file, such as Exported 84,000 rows · orders.csv.

The orders table's WHERE line during an export: a spinner, Exporting · 39,000 rows, and a Cancel esc button.

A toast reading Exported 84,000 rows, orders.csv.

If you close the save dialog without saving, nothing happens. A stopped export says Export cancelled; a failed one says Couldn't export.

What gets exported

The export is the whole result, not only the rows on screen:

A table tab exports its query without the LIMIT, keeping your filters, sort and hidden columns. Filter first to export part of a table.
A query tab runs again the last statement it ran.

Only a query that reads can be exported; anything else says Only a query that reads can be exported. The export runs in the tab's own session, so on Postgres it sees the same data as your queries there, including changes inside a transaction you have open.

Formats

The file's extension picks the format.

Extension	Format
`.csv`	CSV (RFC 4180). NULL is an empty field; binary values are written as `\x` hex
`.tsv` or `.tab`	Tab-separated. Tabs and line breaks inside a value become spaces
`.json`	One JSON array of objects keyed by column name. Integers keep every digit
`.sql`	One `INSERT INTO … VALUES …;` per row, ready to load into another database
anything else	CSV

A SQL export's INSERTs name the tab's table, or the one table a query reads. When a query reads several tables, they name a table called results, which you can change before you load the file.