.sql — SQL Script
Data application/sql
What a .sql file is
Plain-text database statements — either schema definitions or a full dump of data as INSERT statements.
How to open it
Any text editor, or piped into a database client: mysql < dump.sql, psql -f dump.sql.
Worth knowing
Dumps of large tables get enormous. Compress them, and check the file starts with the statements you expect before running it against anything.
How to identify a .sql file
A file's extension is only its name — renaming a.png to a.sql changes nothing inside. What software actually reads is the magic number, the first few bytes of the file.
| Signature | none |
| MIME type | application/sql |
| Category | Data |
Plain text.
# what is this file really?
file mystery.sql
# look at the first bytes yourself
xxd mystery.sql | head -2
head -c 16 mystery.sql | xxd
# Windows PowerShell
Get-Content mystery.sql -AsByteStream -TotalCount 16 | Format-HexFrequently asked questions
What is a .sql file?
Plain-text database statements — either schema definitions or a full dump of data as INSERT statements.
How do I open a .sql file?
Any text editor, or piped into a database client: mysql < dump.sql, psql -f dump.sql.
Is .sql safe to open?
Yes. A .sql file is data, not code — opening one cannot execute anything by itself.
Can I change a file's extension to convert it?
No. Renaming changes the label, not the bytes. The one place it appears to work is between formats that genuinely share a container — renaming .docx to .zip works because a DOCX is a ZIP. Everything else needs a real converter.
Other data formats
- .csv — Comma-Separated Values
- .json — JavaScript Object Notation
- .yaml — YAML Ain't Markup Language
- .parquet — Apache Parquet