Does this validate that my SQL is correct?

No — it's a formatter, not a linter or validator. It reflows whitespace, casing, and line breaks; it doesn't check joins, logic, or whether the query would actually run.

Can it expand SELECT * into explicit column names?

No — that requires knowing the actual table schema (real column names), which means a live database connection. This tool never connects to a database or asks for credentials; it only reformats the SQL text you paste in.

Can I choose leading or trailing commas?

Yes, in Customized style — switch the style toggle from Standard to Customized and pick leading or trailing commas, alongside independent toggles for forced identifier quoting, self-aliased tables, and column alignment. It's scoped to single SELECT statements (CTEs supported); Standard style (sql-formatter) doesn't expose comma position, but does offer indent style, keyword case, identifier case, comment handling, dialect, and tab width.

Does removing comments ever touch my actual query text?

It's built to avoid that specifically — comment removal uses a character-by-character scanner that tracks whether it's inside a quoted string before treating -- or /* as a comment, so a string that happens to contain those characters is left alone. It only strips genuine -- and /* */ comments.

Does the AI Suggestions feature tell me how to make my query run faster?

No — it doesn't have access to your database's schema, indexes, statistics, or an execution plan, so it can't know real runtime performance. It sticks to readability and well-established best practices (e.g. avoiding SELECT *, considering a CTE for a complex subquery), not query-plan-level optimization.

Does the suggested CTE rewrite get applied automatically?

No — it's shown for you to review, and only replaces your SQL if you click "Use this rewrite." Nothing is changed without that explicit action.

Is my SQL sent to a server?

The formatting itself runs entirely client-side — nothing is sent anywhere for that. The optional AI Suggestions feature does send your SQL to DataBench's server, which forwards it to Google's Gemini API to generate the suggestions; it's opt-in per click, not automatic.

SQL Formatter: Beautify & Standardize SQL Online

Paste unformatted SQL and get it reformatted with consistent indentation, keyword casing, and line breaks — pick a dialect (Snowflake, PostgreSQL, MySQL, BigQuery, Redshift, SQL Server, SQLite, Spark, or generic SQL) so keywords specific to that engine are recognized correctly. Optionally case identifiers/functions/data types the same way as keywords, and keep or strip comments.

Switch to Customized style for a stricter, opinionated layout: leading or trailing commas, forced double-quoted UPPERCASE identifiers, tables self-aliased to their own name, and column-aligned AS clauses and WHERE/ON conditions — each independently toggleable. It's scoped to single SELECT statements (CTEs supported).

This is a formatter, not a validator: it reflows whitespace and casing, it doesn't check whether the query is logically correct, and it runs entirely in your browser — nothing you paste in is sent anywhere.

There's also an optional AI-assisted "Get AI Suggestions" pass: readability notes, and — only where genuinely worth it — a CTE-based rewrite of a complex subquery for you to review. This is a suggestion to apply yourself, never an automatic change, and it's scoped to readability, not true query-plan optimization, which would need real database access (schema, statistics, an execution plan) this tool doesn't have.