DuckDB Textplot Extension by Query.Farm

The Textplot extension, developed by Query.Farm, brings beautiful text-based data visualization directly to your SQL queries in DuckDB. Create stunning ASCII/Unicode charts, bar graphs, and density plots without leaving your database environment.

Use Cases

The Textplot extension is perfect for:

Quick data exploration: Visualize distributions and trends directly in your terminal
Dashboard creation: Add visual elements to text-based reports and dashboards
Monitoring and alerting: Create visual indicators for system metrics and KPIs
Data quality checks: Spot outliers and patterns in your data instantly
Command-line analytics: Build beautiful charts for CLI tools and scripts
Documentation: Include visual data summaries in README files and documentation
Embedded analytics: Add lightweight visualizations to applications without heavy charting libraries

Installation

textplot is a DuckDB Community Extension.

You can now use this by using this SQL:

install textplot from community;
load textplot;

Functions

`tp_bar(value, ...options)`

Creates horizontal bar charts with customizable styling and colors.

Basic Usage:

-- Simple progress bar (50% filled)
SELECT tp_bar(0.5);
┌──────────────────────┐
│     tp_bar(0.5)      │
│       varchar        │
├──────────────────────┤
│ 🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ │
└──────────────────────┘

-- Custom width and range
SELECT tp_bar(75, min := 0, max := 100, width := 20);
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ tp_bar(75, min := 0, max := 100, width := 20) │
│                    varchar                    │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜      │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Advanced Options:

-- Custom colors and shapes
SELECT tp_bar(0.8, shape := 'circle', on_color := 'green', off_color := 'white') as bar;
┌──────────────────────┐
│         bar          │
│       varchar        │
├──────────────────────┤
│ 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢⚪⚪ │
└──────────────────────┘

-- Threshold-based coloring
SELECT tp_bar(85,
    min := 0, max := 100,
    thresholds := [
        {'threshold': 90, 'color': 'red'},
        {'threshold': 70, 'color': 'yellow'},
        {'threshold': 0, 'color': 'green'}
    ]
) as bar;
┌──────────────────────┐
│         bar          │
│       varchar        │
├──────────────────────┤
│ 🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜ │
└──────────────────────┘

-- Custom characters (note: "on" and "off" are reserved keywords, so they must be quoted)
SELECT tp_bar(0.7, "on" := '█', "off" := '░', width := 15) as bar;
┌─────────────────┐
│       bar       │
│     varchar     │
├─────────────────┤
│ ███████████░░░░ │
└─────────────────┘

SELECT round(n,4),
tp_bar(n,
width := 14,
shape := 'circle',
off_color :='black',
filled := false,
thresholds := [
  (0.8, 'red'),
  (0.7, 'orange'),
  (0.6, 'yellow'),
  (0.0, 'green')
]) as bar
FROM (select random() as n from generate_series(10));
┌─────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│ round(n, 4) │             bar              │
│   double    │           varchar            │
├─────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│      0.9889 │ ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫🔴 │
│      0.6242 │ ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫🟡⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
│      0.6013 │ ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫🟡⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
│       0.669 │ ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫🟡⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
│      0.8363 │ ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫🔴⚫⚫ │
│      0.9193 │ ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫🔴⚫ │
│      0.8629 │ ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫🔴⚫⚫ │
│      0.8296 │ ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫🔴⚫⚫ │
│      0.0824 │ 🟢⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
│      0.0281 │ ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
│      0.2682 │ ⚫⚫⚫🟢⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
├─────────────┴──────────────────────────────┤
│ 11 rows                          2 columns │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘

SELECT round(n,4),
tp_bar(n,
width := 14,
shape := 'circle',
off_color :='black',
filled := true,
thresholds := [
  (0.8, 'red'),
  (0.7, 'orange'),
  (0.6, 'yellow'),
  (0.0, 'green')
]) as bar
FROM (select random() as n from generate_series(10));
┌─────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│ round(n, 4) │             bar              │
│   double    │           varchar            │
├─────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│      0.3818 │ 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
│      0.1919 │ 🟢🟢🟢⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
│      0.5885 │ 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
│      0.9558 │ 🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴⚫ │
│      0.4463 │ 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
│      0.6024 │ 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
│      0.0114 │ ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
│      0.4993 │ 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
│      0.6884 │ 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
│      0.7929 │ 🟠🟠🟠🟠🟠🟠🟠🟠🟠🟠🟠⚫⚫⚫ │
│      0.3507 │ 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ │
├─────────────┴──────────────────────────────┤
│ 11 rows                          2 columns │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Parameters:

value: Numeric value to visualize
min: Minimum value (default: 0)
max: Maximum value (default: 1.0)
width: Bar width in characters (default: 10)
shape: 'square', 'circle', or 'heart' (default: 'square')
on_color/off_color: Color names (red, green, blue, yellow, etc.)
"on"/"off": Custom characters for filled/empty portions (must be quoted - reserved keywords)
filled: Boolean, fill all blocks or just the endpoint (default: true)
thresholds: List of threshold objects for conditional coloring

`tp_density(values, ...options)`

Creates density plots and histograms from arrays of numeric data.

Basic Usage:

-- Simple density plot
SELECT tp_density([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]) as density;
┌──────────────────────┐
│       density        │
│       varchar        │
├──────────────────────┤
│ █    █    █    █   ▒ │
└──────────────────────┘

-- Custom width and style
SELECT tp_density([1, 2, 3, 2, 1], width := 30, style := 'height') as density;
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│            density             │
│            varchar             │
├────────────────────────────────┤
│ █              █             ▄ │
└────────────────────────────────┘

Style Options:

-- ASCII style for compatibility
SELECT tp_density([1, 5, 3, 8, 2], style := 'ascii') as density;
┌──────────────────────┐
│       density        │
│       varchar        │
├──────────────────────┤
│ @ @  @     @       @ │
└──────────────────────┘

-- Dot style for subtle visualization
SELECT tp_density([1, 5, 3, 8, 2], style := 'dots') as density;
┌──────────────────────┐
│       density        │
│       varchar        │
├──────────────────────┤
│ ● ●  ●     ●       ● │
└──────────────────────┘

-- Colorful emoji styles
SELECT tp_density([1, 5, 3, 8, 2], style := 'rainbow_circle') as density;
┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 density                  │
│                 varchar                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ⚪⚫⚪⚫⚫⚪⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚪⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚪ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘

Parameters:

values: Array of numeric values
width: Plot width in characters (default: 20)
style: Character set style ('shaded', 'ascii', 'dots', 'height', 'circles', 'safety', 'rainbow_circle', 'rainbow_square', 'moon', 'sparse', 'white')
graph_chars: Custom array of characters for density levels
marker: Character to highlight specific values

Available Styles:

shaded: ░▒▓█ (default)
ascii: .:+#@
dots: .•●
height: ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█
circles: ⚫⚪🟡🟠🔴
rainbow_circle: ⚫🟤🟣🔵🟢🟡🟠🔴⚪

`tp_sparkline(values, ...options)`

Creates compact sparkline charts perfect for showing trends in time series data and small multiples.

Basic Usage:

-- Simple absolute value sparkline
SELECT tp_sparkline([1, 3, 2, 5, 4, 6, 2, 1]) as sparkline;
┌──────────────────────┐
│      sparkline       │
│       varchar        │
├──────────────────────┤
│    ==---##***@@---   │
└──────────────────────┘

-- Delta mode showing change direction
SELECT tp_sparkline([100, 105, 102, 108, 95], mode := 'delta') as sparkline;
┌──────────────────────┐
│      sparkline       │
│       varchar        │
├──────────────────────┤
│ ↑↑↑↑↑↓↓↓↓↓↑↑↑↑↑↓↓↓↓↓ │
└──────────────────────┘

-- Trend mode with magnitude
SELECT tp_sparkline([10, 12, 11, 15, 8], mode := 'trend', theme := 'slopes') as sparkline;
┌───────────────────────────┐
│         sparkline         │
│          varchar          │
├───────────────────────────┤
│ /////\\\\\/////\\\\\\\\\\ │
└───────────────────────────┘

Visualization Modes:

1. Absolute Mode (default) - Shows actual values as heights:

-- Stock prices over time
SELECT tp_sparkline([45.2, 47.1, 46.8, 49.3, 52.1, 48.7], width := 20, theme := 'utf8_blocks') as sparkline;
┌──────────────────────┐
│      sparkline       │
│       varchar        │
├──────────────────────┤
│     ▂▂▂▂▂▂▅▅▅▅███▄▄▄ │
└──────────────────────┘

-- System CPU usage
SELECT tp_sparkline([25, 45, 78, 92, 67, 34], theme := 'ascii_basic', width := 15) as sparkline;
┌─────────────────┐
│    sparkline    │
│     varchar     │
├─────────────────┤
│    --###@@***.. │
└─────────────────┘

2. Delta Mode - Shows direction of change (up/same/down):

-- Sales trend directions
SELECT tp_sparkline([1000, 1200, 1150, 1300, 980], mode := 'delta', theme := 'arrows') as sparkline;
┌──────────────────────┐
│      sparkline       │
│       varchar        │
├──────────────────────┤
│ ↑↑↑↑↑↓↓↓↓↓↑↑↑↑↑↓↓↓↓↓ │
└──────────────────────┘

-- Temperature changes
SELECT tp_sparkline([72, 75, 75, 78, 71], mode := 'delta', theme := 'faces') as sparkline;
┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                sparkline                 │
│                 varchar                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 😊😊😊😊😊😐😐😐😐😐😊😊😊😊😊😞😞😞😞😞 │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘

3. Trend Mode - Shows change direction with magnitude:

-- Market volatility
SELECT tp_sparkline([100, 110

Textplot

Install / Use

README

DuckDB Textplot Extension by Query.Farm

Use Cases

Installation

Functions

tp_bar(value, ...options)

tp_density(values, ...options)

tp_sparkline(values, ...options)

`tp_bar(value, ...options)`

`tp_density(values, ...options)`

`tp_sparkline(values, ...options)`