Why this matters
Developers switch between JSON, CSS, HTML, SQL, and XML constantly throughout a typical workday, and each format arrives in a different state of readability. API responses come as single-line JSON blobs. Legacy codebases contain CSS with zero indentation. Generated HTML from template engines is a mess of collapsed tags. Copy-pasted SQL from chat windows loses all clause breaks. Running a different formatter for each language means opening five browser tabs or installing five VS Code extensions, which is overhead nobody wants.
This tool consolidates beautification and minification for all five languages into one interface. Each language has a dedicated, hand-written formatter rather than a generic Prettier wrapper, which means the output follows language-specific conventions — SQL keywords are uppercased and clauses get their own lines, JSON keys are sorted consistently, and XML preserves attribute ordering. The 2-space or 4-space indent toggle lets you match your project's style guide instantly, and the minify path strips all unnecessary whitespace while preserving string content and comment safety for CSS, HTML, and XML.
Supported languages and modes
| Language | Beautify features | Minify behavior |
|---|---|---|
| JSON | Indented keys, sorted order | Single line, no whitespace |
| CSS | Rule-per-line, nested braces | Stripped whitespace and comments |
| HTML | Indented tags, readable attrs | Collapsed tags, safe string content |
| SQL | Uppercased keywords, clause breaks | Compressed clauses |
| XML | Indented elements, attr formatting | Stripped whitespace and comments |
How to use it
Paste your code into the input area.
Select the language from the dropdown: JSON, CSS, HTML, SQL, or XML.
Choose your indent preference: 2 spaces or 4 spaces.
Click Beautify to format for readability or Minify to compress for production.
Testing your result
After beautifying, paste the output into your editor and verify that it renders or parses identically to the original. For JSON, run it through a parser to confirm valid syntax — the beautifier will expose any malformed input that was hidden in a single line. For CSS, load the beautified version in a browser and check that all styles apply correctly. For SQL, paste it into a query runner and confirm it executes the same query. The minified output should be functionally identical to the input; the only difference is the removal of whitespace and comments where safe.
Common mistakes
Pasting JavaScript into the formatter and selecting JSON — JS objects are not valid JSON when they contain unquoted keys or trailing commas.
Assuming minified SQL will run correctly without testing, since aggressive whitespace removal can occasionally break complex nested queries.
Forgetting to select the correct language before clicking Beautify, which applies the wrong parsing rules to your input.
Edge cases and limitations
The SQL formatter is dialect-agnostic: it uppercases recognized keywords and breaks lines at clause boundaries, which works well for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server, and Oracle but will not handle dialect-specific syntax like T-SQL `BEGIN TRY` blocks perfectly. The formatter does not support JavaScript beautification — use the dedicated JS minifier for that. Very large files (above 1 MB of text) may feel sluggish because the formatter processes the entire string synchronously in the browser. All processing is local, so pasting proprietary code is safe.
Real-world use cases
Debugging a minified JSON API response by beautifying it into a readable, indented structure.
Cleaning up generated HTML from a CMS export before hand-editing the template.
Minifying inline CSS and HTML snippets before pasting them into a production email template.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Why a multi-language formatter?
A: Most formatters specialise in one language. This gives you a single tool for the common case — switching contexts without swapping tools.
Q: Is the SQL formatter dialect-aware?
A: It uppercases recognized keywords and breaks lines at clause boundaries — works well for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server and Oracle.
Q: Are strings preserved during minification?
A: Yes — CSS, HTML and XML minifiers preserve string content and only strip whitespace and comments where safe.
Q: Is my code uploaded?
A: No. Formatting happens entirely in your browser.
Q: Does it support JavaScript?
A: Not in this tool. Use the dedicated JS Minifier for JavaScript beautification and minification.
Start using it now
Beautify or minify your code across five languages with the Code Formatter. For JSON-specific formatting, try the JSON Formatter. For CSS-specific work, the CSS Minifier & Beautifier offers deeper options. Dedicated tools for JS, SQL, and XML are also available.
