SQL test data generator

What the output looks like

CREATE TABLE customers (
  id INTEGER,
  full_name TEXT,
  email TEXT,
  is_active BOOLEAN
);
INSERT INTO customers (id, full_name, email, is_active) VALUES
  (1, 'Elena Rossi', 'elena.rossi7@example.org', TRUE);

Why SQL export?

Sometimes the fastest way to a populated dev database is a plain .sql file: no ETL tool, no ORM seeder, just psql -f or mysql <. The generator writes standard INSERT statements, escapes quotes correctly, renders blanks as NULL, and can prepend a CREATE TABLE whose column types (integer, decimal, boolean, text) are inferred from your field types.

SQL-specific options

• Table name — set it once; it is used in both the CREATE TABLE and every INSERT.
• Create table toggle — turn it off when the table already exists and you only want rows.
• Seed — the same seed regenerates the exact same script, so your whole team seeds identical databases.

Applying the script

# PostgreSQL — stop at the first error instead of ploughing on
psql -d mydb -v ON_ERROR_STOP=1 -f fundata_1000_rows.sql

# MySQL / MariaDB
mysql -u dev -p mydb < fundata_1000_rows.sql

# SQLite
sqlite3 dev.db < fundata_1000_rows.sql

# Dry run inside a transaction you never commit
psql -d mydb -1 -c '\i fundata_1000_rows.sql' -c 'ROLLBACK;'

# Docker-based CI: seed a throwaway database on startup
docker run -d -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=x \
  -v "$PWD/fundata_1000_rows.sql:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/seed.sql" postgres:17

Database compatibility and safety

The generated script uses portable SQL literals: text is single-quoted with embedded quotes escaped, numbers remain unquoted, booleans use TRUE/FALSE and missing values become NULL. It is designed for disposable development and test databases. Review inferred column sizes, constraints and dialect-specific identifiers before applying a script to an existing schema; the tool never connects to your database.

Portable SQL is a smaller language than any one dialect, so a few things are worth checking before a script meets a schema you care about:

• BOOLEAN is not universal. PostgreSQL has a real boolean type; MySQL treats it as TINYINT(1), and SQLite stores 0 and 1. The TRUE/FALSE literals work in all three, but the column type in CREATE TABLE may need adjusting.
• No primary keys, indexes or constraints are emitted. The inferred CREATE TABLE is a plain column list. That is deliberate — guessing a key would be wrong more often than right — but it means the script populates a table rather than defining a schema you should keep.
• Identifiers are unquoted. A table or column name that collides with a reserved word, or that needs case preserved in PostgreSQL, has to be quoted by hand. Sticking to lowercase names with underscores avoids the whole question.
• Apostrophes are the escaping case that matters. Names like O'Brien are emitted as 'O''Brien' — a doubled quote, which is the SQL standard and works everywhere. Generating a batch of Irish surnames is a quick way to prove a downstream tool handles them.
• Rows are batched into multi-row INSERTs. That is far faster than one statement per row, but it also means a single bad row rejects its whole batch. Run with ON_ERROR_STOP so a partial load doesn't look like a success.

Common SQL questions

Plan realistic schemas and repeatable seeds with the database test-data guide.

Other formats

The same schema exports to all six formats — switch with one dropdown: CSV, TSV, JSON, NDJSON, XML. New here? Start with the getting-started guide or the full field type reference.

Last updated 6 September 2026