PRQL compiler CLI — prqlc

prqlc serves as a CLI for the PRQL compiler. It is a single, dependency-free binary that compiles PRQL into SQL.

Usage

prqlc compile

This command works as a filter that compiles a PRQL string into an SQL string.

1. $ echo "from employees | filter has_dog | select salary" | prqlc compile

3. SELECT
4. salary
5. FROM
6. employees
7. WHERE
8. has_dog

A PRQL query can be executed with CLI tools compatible with SQL,, such as DuckDB CLI.

1. $ curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PRQL/prql/0.8.1/prql-compiler/tests/integration/data/chinook/albums.csv -o albums.csv
2. $ echo "from `albums.csv` | take 3" | prqlc compile | duckdb
3. ┌──────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┬───────────┐
4. │ album_id │                 title                 │ artist_id │
5. │  int64   │                varchar                │   int64   │
6. ├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
7. │        1 │ For Those About To Rock We Salute You │         1 │
8. │        2 │ Balls to the Wall                     │         2 │
9. │        3 │ Restless and Wild                     │         2 │
10. └──────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┴───────────┘

Executing this command without any argument will start interactive mode, allowing a PRQL query to be written interactively. In this mode, after writing PRQL and press Ctrl-d (Linux, macOS) or Ctrl-z (Windows) to display the compiled SQL.

1. prqlc compile

Just like when using it as a filter, SQL string output can be passed to the DuckDB CLI and similar tools.

1. $ prqlc compile | duckdb
2. Enter PRQL, then press ctrl-d to compile:

4. from `albums.csv`
5. take 3
6. ┌──────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┬───────────┐
7. │ album_id │                 title                 │ artist_id │
8. │  int64   │                varchar                │   int64   │
9. ├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
10. │        1 │ For Those About To Rock We Salute You │         1 │
11. │        2 │ Balls to the Wall                     │         2 │
12. │        3 │ Restless and Wild                     │         2 │
13. └──────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┴───────────┘

Installation

Packaging status

via Homebrew (macOS, Linux)

1. brew install prqlc

From GitHub release page

Precompiled binaries are available for Linux, macOS, and Windows on the PRQL release page.

From source

1. # From crates.io
2. cargo install prqlc

1. # From a local PRQL repository
2. cargo install --path crates/prqlc

Shell completions

The prqlc shell-completion command prints a shell completion script for supported shells, and saving the printed scripts to files makes for shells to load completions for each session.

Bash

For Linux:

1. prqlc shell-completion bash >/etc/bash_completion.d/prqlc

For macOS:

1. prqlc shell-completion bash >/usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/prqlc

fish

1. prqlc shell-completion fish >~/.config/fish/completions/prqlc.fish

PowerShell

1. mkdir -Path (Split-Path -Parent $profile) -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
2. prqlc shell-completion powershell >path/to/prqlc.ps1
3. echo 'Invoke-Expression -Command path/to/prqlc.ps1' >>$profile

zsh

1. prqlc shell-completion zsh >"${fpath[1]}/_prqlc"

Ensure that the following lines are present in ~/.zshrc:

1. autoload -U compinit
2. compinit -i

Helpers

Cheat sheets for prqlc are available on various websites and with various tools.