SQL Minifier

SQL Minifier – Compress SQL Queries

The SQL minifier turns a nicely formatted, commented query into a compact single line. That is useful when you need to embed SQL in code, a JSON or YAML config, a log message, or a command-line call where line breaks get in the way.

What it does

• Removes -- line comments, # comments (MySQL), and /* block */ comments.
• Collapses all whitespace — spaces, tabs, and line breaks — to the minimum needed.
• Removes spaces around punctuation such as commas, parentheses, and operators.

What it never touches

• String literals in single quotes, including escaped quotes ('it''s') and backslash escapes.
• Quoted identifiers in double quotes and MySQL backticks.
• PostgreSQL dollar-quoted strings ($$ ... $$ and $tag$ ... $tag$), commonly used for function bodies.
• Optimizer hints – MySQL /*! ... */ version comments and Oracle /*+ ... */ hints are kept by default because they change query behaviour.

The minifier is careful with operators: it never joins two characters into a comment marker, so a - -1 stays valid instead of turning into a--1.

Options

• Keep comments – keep comments, converted to /* */ style so they are safe on one line.
• Keep hints – turn off to remove optimizer hints as well.

Size savings

The savings chips show how much smaller the query became. For long reports with many comments, savings of 40% or more are common. Keep the formatted, commented version in version control as the source of truth, and generate the minified one only where a single line is required.

Related tools

Make a minified query readable again with the SQL Beautifier, escape it for use in code with SQL Escape, or inspect INSERT data with the SQL Viewer.