Export to CSV

Export to CSV

Task: Write query results to CSV format.

cqlite \
  --schema test-data/schemas/basic-types.cql \
  --data-dir test-data/datasets/sstables \
  --query "SELECT id, name, age FROM test_basic.simple_table LIMIT 3" \
  --out csv

Expected output (real output, written to stdout):

id,name,age
0023ece7-7c4e-4705-9068-d1a59ec5fe19,Debbie Soto,79
009fb913-7173-40df-b4ea-67ed6834cfe5,Richard Parker,58
00a74226-9bde-4259-9ba0-d74359e8013e,Andrew Meyers,47

Exit code: 0 on success.

Format: First row is a header with column names. Values use standard CSV escaping (double-quote wrapping for values containing commas or newlines).

Write to a file

cqlite \
  --schema test-data/schemas/basic-types.cql \
  --data-dir test-data/datasets/sstables \
  --query "SELECT id, name, age FROM test_basic.simple_table" \
  --out csv \
  --output /tmp/simple_table.csv \
  --overwrite

Export time-series data

cqlite \
  --schema test-data/schemas/time-series.cql \
  --data-dir test-data/datasets/sstables \
  --query "SELECT sensor_id, timestamp, temperature, humidity FROM test_timeseries.sensor_data LIMIT 5" \
  --out csv

Expected output:

sensor_id,timestamp,temperature,humidity
0284a718-be7b-49e6-b6b9-8e82f5ff1660,2025-10-06 01:00:30.616+0000,-16.17206573486328,92.88220977783203
0284a718-be7b-49e6-b6b9-8e82f5ff1660,2025-10-05 13:48:21.616+0000,16.26676368713379,1.5052613019943237
0284a718-be7b-49e6-b6b9-8e82f5ff1660,2025-10-05 13:34:21.616+0000,1.2208592891693115,41.793243408203125
0284a718-be7b-49e6-b6b9-8e82f5ff1660,2025-10-05 13:08:14.616+0000,19.574493408203125,59.132102966308594
0284a718-be7b-49e6-b6b9-8e82f5ff1660,2025-10-05 05:02:36.616+0000,8.865622520446777,25.052871704101562

Type rendering in CSV

CQL type	CSV rendering
text, varchar, ascii	literal string
Numbers (int, bigint, float, double)	decimal literal
boolean	true / false
uuid, timeuuid	xxxxxxxx-xxxx-...
timestamp	YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.mmm+0000
date	YYYY-MM-DD
blob	hex-encoded (0x...)
list<T>, set<T>	bracket-enclosed, e.g. [a, b, c]
map<K,V>	{key: value, ...}
null	empty field

Failure modes

Symptom	Error	Fix
No --schema flag	Error: Schema not found for table '...'	Add --schema path/to/schema.cql
Output file exists	exit code 6	Add --overwrite