GDAL-VECTOR-SQL(1) GDAL GDAL-VECTOR-SQL(1)
NAME
gdal-vector-sql - Apply SQL statement(s) to a dataset
Added in version 3.11.
SYNOPSIS
Usage: gdal vector sql [OPTIONS] ]
Apply SQL statement(s) to a dataset.
Positional arguments:
-i, --dataset, --input Output vector dataset [not available in pipelines]
Common Options:
-h, --help Display help message and exit
--json-usage Display usage as JSON document and exit
--config = Configuration option [may be repeated]
-q, --quiet Quiet mode (no progress bar or warning message) [not available in pipelines]
Options:
-f, --of, --format, --output-format Output format ("GDALG" allowed) [not available in pipelines]
--co, --creation-option = Creation option [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
--lco, --layer-creation-option = Layer creation option [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
--overwrite Whether overwriting existing output dataset is allowed [not available in pipelines]
--update Whether to open existing dataset in update mode [not available in pipelines]
--overwrite-layer Whether overwriting existing output layer is allowed [not available in pipelines]
--append Whether appending to existing layer is allowed [not available in pipelines]
Mutually exclusive with --upsert
--skip-errors Skip errors when writing features [not available in pipelines]
--sql |@ SQL statement(s) [may be repeated] [required]
--output-layer Output layer name(s) [may be repeated]
--dialect SQL dialect (e.g. OGRSQL, SQLITE)
Advanced Options:
--if, --input-format Input formats [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
--oo, --open-option = Open options [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
--output-oo, --output-open-option = Output open options [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
--upsert Upsert features (implies 'append') [not available in pipelines]
Mutually exclusive with --append
DESCRIPTION
gdal vector sql returns one or several layers evaluated from SQL
statements.
Starting with GDAL 3.12, when using --update, and without an output
dataset specified, this can be used to execute statements that modify
the input dataset, such as UPDATE, DELETE, etc.
GDALG OUTPUT (ON-THE-FLY / STREAMED DATASET)
This program supports serializing the command line as a JSON file using
the GDALG output format. The resulting file can then be opened as a
vector dataset using the GDALG: GDAL Streamed Algorithm driver, and
apply the specified pipeline in a on-the-fly / streamed way.
PROGRAM-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
--output-layer
Output SQL layer name(s). If not specified, a generic layer name
such as "SELECT" may be generated.
Must be specified as many times as there are SQL statements,
either as several --output-layer arguments, or a single one with
the layer names combined with comma.
--quiet
Added in version 3.12.
Silence potential information messages.
--sql |@
SQL statement to execute that returns a table/layer (typically a
SELECT statement).
Can be repeated to generated multiple output layers (repeating
--sql for each output layer)
--dialect
SQL dialect.
By default the native SQL of an RDBMS is used when using gdal
vector sql. If using sql as a step of gdal vector pipeline, this
is only true if the step preceding sql is read, otherwise the
OGRSQL dialect is used.
If a datasource does not support SQL natively, the default is to
use the OGRSQL dialect, which can also be specified with any
data source.
The SQL SQLite dialect dialect can be chosen with the SQLITE and
INDIRECT_SQLITE dialect values, and this can be used with any
data source. Overriding the default dialect may be beneficial
because the capabilities of the SQL dialects vary.
Supported dialects can be checked with gdal --format. For
example:
$ gdal --format "PostgreSQL"
[...]
Supported SQL dialects: NATIVE OGRSQL SQLITE
[...]
$ gdal --format "ESRI Shapefile"
[...]
Supported SQL dialects: OGRSQL SQLITE
[...]
STANDARD OPTIONS
--append
Whether appending features to existing layer(s) is allowed.
This also creates the output dataset if it does not exist yet.
--co, --creation-option =
Many formats have one or more optional dataset creation options
that can be used to control particulars about the file created.
For instance, the GeoPackage driver supports creation options to
control the version.
May be repeated.
The dataset creation options available vary by format driver,
and some simple formats have no creation options at all. A list
of options supported for a format can be listed with the
--formats command line option but the documentation for the
format is the definitive source of information on driver
creation options. See Vector drivers format specific
documentation for legal creation options for each format.
Note that dataset creation options are different from layer
creation options.
--if, --input-format
Format/driver name to be attempted to open the input file(s). It
is generally not necessary to specify it, but it can be used to
skip automatic driver detection, when it fails to select the
appropriate driver. This option can be repeated several times
to specify several candidate drivers. Note that it does not
force those drivers to open the dataset. In particular, some
drivers have requirements on file extensions.
May be repeated.
--lco, --layer-creation-option =
Many formats have one or more optional layer creation options
that can be used to control particulars about the layer created.
For instance, the GeoPackage driver supports layer creation
options to control the feature identifier or geometry column
name, setting the identifier or description, etc.
May be repeated.
The layer creation options available vary by format driver, and
some simple formats have no layer creation options at all. A
list of options supported for a format can be listed with the
--formats command line option but the documentation for the
format is the definitive source of information on driver
creation options. See Vector drivers format specific
documentation for legal creation options for each format.
Note that layer creation options are different from dataset
creation options.
--oo, --open-option =
Dataset open option (format specific).
May be repeated.
-f, --of, --format, --output-format
Which output vector format to use. Allowed values may be given
by gdal --formats | grep vector | grep rw | sort
--output-open-option, --output-oo =
Added in version 3.12.
Dataset open option for output dataset (format specific).
May be repeated.
--overwrite
Allow program to overwrite existing target file or dataset.
Otherwise, by default, gdal errors out if the target file or
dataset already exists.
--overwrite-layer
Whether overwriting the existing output vector layer is allowed.
--skip-errors
Added in version 3.12.
Whether failures to write feature(s) should be ignored. Note
that this option sets the size of the transaction unit to one
feature at a time, which may cause severe slowdown when
inserting into databases.
--update
Whether to open an existing output dataset in update mode.
--upsert
Added in version 3.12.
Variant of --append where the OGRLayer::UpsertFeature()
operation is used to insert or update features instead of
appending with OGRLayer::CreateFeature().
This is currently implemented only in a few drivers: GPKG --
GeoPackage vector, Elasticsearch: Geographically Encoded Objects
for Elasticsearch and MongoDBv3 (drivers that implement upsert
expose the GDAL_DCAP_UPSERT capability).
The upsert operation uses the FID of the input feature, when it
is set (and the FID column name is not the empty string), as the
key to update existing features. It is crucial to make sure that
the FID in the source and target layers are consistent.
For the GPKG driver, it is also possible to upsert features
whose FID is unset or non-significant (the --unset-fid option of
gdal vector edit can be used to ignore the FID from the source
feature), when there is a UNIQUE column that is not the integer
primary key.
-q, --quiet
Suppress progress bar and some warning messages.
RETURN STATUS CODE
The program returns status code 0 in case of success, and non-zero in
case of error (non-blocking errors emitted as warnings are considered
as a successful execution).
EXAMPLES
Example 1: Generate a GeoPackage file with a layer sorted by descending
population
$ gdal vector sql in.gpkg out.gpkg --output-layer country_sorted_by_pop --sql="SELECT * FROM country ORDER BY pop DESC"
Example 2: Generate a GeoPackage file with 2 SQL result layers
$ gdal vector sql in.gpkg out.gpkg --output-layer=beginning,end --sql="SELECT * FROM my_layer LIMIT 100" --sql="SELECT * FROM my_layer OFFSET 100000 LIMIT 100"
Example 3: Modify in-place a GeoPackage dataset
$ gdal vector sql --update my.gpkg --sql "DELETE FROM countries WHERE pop > 1e6"
Example 4: Add a new field to an existing layer of a GeoPackage
$ gdal vector sql --update my.gpkg --sql "ALTER TABLE countries ADD COLUMN abbrev STRING(10)"
Example 5: Append to an existing layer of a GeoPackage file
$ gdal vector pipeline read europe.gpkg ! \
sql --sql "SELECT * FROM country WHERE pop > 1e6" ! \
write --append --output-layer-name=world world.gpkg
AUTHOR
Even Rouault
COPYRIGHT
1998-2026
August 18, 2026 GDAL-VECTOR-SQL(1)