How to Format a List for SQL, JSON, or HTML

The starting list

For each example below, the input is the same five-item list:

red
green
blue
orange
yellow

Format 1 — SQL IN clause

Want:

WHERE color IN ('red', 'green', 'blue', 'orange', 'yellow')

Steps:

1. Paste list into the Prefix & Suffix tool.
2. Prefix: '
3. Suffix: ',
4. "No trailing separator on last line": on.
5. Copy.
6. Wrap with WHERE color IN ( at top and ) at bottom.

Escape: if any item contains a single quote, replace ' with '' first. The Find & Replace tool handles this in one pass.

Limit: most databases reject IN clauses past 1,000 items. For longer lists, build a temp table or use JOIN against a staging table.

Format 2 — JSON array

Want:

["red", "green", "blue", "orange", "yellow"]

Steps:

1. Paste list into Prefix/Suffix.
2. Prefix: "
3. Suffix: ",
4. "No trailing separator": on.
5. Copy. Wrap with [ and ].

Multi-line is fine for readability; one-line works too.

Escape: if items contain double quotes, replace " with \" first. If items contain backslashes, replace \ with \\ first. The JSON Formatter validates the result and flags any escaping mistakes.

Format 3 — HTML unordered list

Want:

<ul>
  <li>red</li>
  <li>green</li>
  <li>blue</li>
  <li>orange</li>
  <li>yellow</li>
</ul>

Steps:

1. Paste list into Prefix/Suffix.
2. Prefix: <li>
3. Suffix: </li>
4. Copy. Wrap with <ul> at top and </ul> at bottom.

Escape: if items contain HTML special characters (<, >, &), pre-encode them as <, >, &.

For ordered lists, swap <ul> for <ol> in the wrapper. The <li> markup stays the same.

Format 4 — markdown bullet list

Want:

- red
- green
- blue
- orange
- yellow

Steps:

1. Paste list into Prefix/Suffix.
2. Prefix: - (dash, space)
3. Suffix: empty
4. Copy.

Escape: markdown is permissive. The only items that need attention: lines starting with characters markdown reserves (-, *, #, >). For those, prefix with a backslash: \- starts with dash.

For numbered lists, use prefix 1. for every line — the renderer renumbers automatically.

Format 5 — comma-separated string

Want:

red, green, blue, orange, yellow

Steps:

1. Paste list into Prefix/Suffix.
2. Prefix: empty
3. Suffix: ,
4. "No trailing separator": on.
5. Copy.
6. Find/replace newlines with spaces (or use the "join with separator" toggle if available).

For TSV (tab-separated), use a tab as the separator. For comma-separated with quoted fields (CSV with embedded commas), prefix ", suffix ",.

Format 6 — Python / Ruby / Go list literal

The same JSON-array workflow produces valid syntax for most languages:

colors = ["red", "green", "blue", "orange", "yellow"]

Just paste the JSON array as the right-hand side. Works in Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby (with %w[red green blue] as an alternative for word arrays), and Go (with []string{"red", "green", "blue"} as an alternative).

The escaping rules summary

The trap that bites everyone once

Mismatched escapes between layers. You build a SQL IN clause from a list. The list contains O'Brien. Without the SQL escape (' → ''), the resulting SQL is:

WHERE name IN ('O'Brien', ...)

That's syntactically broken. The single quote inside O'Brien closes the string early. The query fails, or worse — if the input came from user-controlled text, this is a SQL injection vulnerability.

Always escape for the destination format. The TextKit tools don't do this automatically because the right escape depends on context — but they make the escape pass quick once you know which one to do.

For the broader reference on list operations, see List Operations: The Complete Guide. For the prefix/suffix workflow, see How to Add Prefix/Suffix to Each Line.