SQL Formatting Best Practices for Engineering Teams

Maintaining clean database queries is just as vital as clean application code. In complex data migrations and reporting pipelines, unformatted multi-line SQL queries often conceal syntax errors and inefficient join conditions.

Core Principles of Clean SQL

• Uppercase Reserved Keywords: Always capitalize SELECT, FROM, WHERE, and GROUP BY to separate database commands from identifiers.
• One Column Per Line in SELECT Clauses: When selecting multiple columns, format each expression on its own line to make Git diffs readable and unambiguous.
• Indent Conditional Predicates: Indent AND / OR clauses under their parent WHERE statement.