⌘+k ctrl+k
1.1.3 (stable)
Search Shortcut cmd + k | ctrl + k
Syntax Highlighting

Syntax highlighting in the CLI is currently only available for macOS and Linux.

SQL queries that are written in the shell are automatically highlighted using syntax highlighting.

Image showing syntax highlighting in the shell

There are several components of a query that are highlighted in different colors. The colors can be configured using dot commands. Syntax highlighting can also be disabled entirely using the .highlight off command.

Below is a list of components that can be configured.

Type Command Default color
Keywords .keyword green
Constants ad literals .constant yellow
Comments .comment brightblack
Errors .error red
Continuation .cont brightblack
Continuation (Selected) .cont_sel green

The components can be configured using either a supported color name (e.g., .keyword red), or by directly providing a terminal code to use for rendering (e.g., .keywordcode \033[31m). Below is a list of supported color names and their corresponding terminal codes.

Color Terminal code
red \033[31m
green \033[32m
yellow \033[33m
blue \033[34m
magenta \033[35m
cyan \033[36m
white \033[37m
brightblack \033[90m
brightred \033[91m
brightgreen \033[92m
brightyellow \033[93m
brightblue \033[94m
brightmagenta \033[95m
brightcyan \033[96m
brightwhite \033[97m

For example, here is an alternative set of syntax highlighting colors:

.keyword brightred
.constant brightwhite
.comment cyan
.error yellow
.cont blue
.cont_sel brightblue

If you wish to start up the CLI with a different set of colors every time, you can place these commands in the ~/.duckdbrc file that is loaded on start-up of the CLI.

Error Highlighting

The shell has support for highlighting certain errors. In particular, mismatched brackets and unclosed quotes are highlighted in red (or another color if specified). This highlighting is automatically disabled for large queries. In addition, it can be disabled manually using the .render_errors off command.

About this page