One way to optimise this is to pull back the entire SQL results in an [][]interface{} (row, column) but then only pass a sub-slice to your TUI (depending on how many rows are visible).

I assume your term library doesn’t create the actual table? So you’d know the term height and you’re then plotting the cells? If that’s not the case then I don’t think you’ll get much further with this project without switching to another term library (or rolling your own — which is actually easier than it sounds).