2 doc/src/sgml/ref/copy.sgml
3 PostgreSQL documentation
7 <refentry id="SQL-COPY">
8 <indexterm zone="sql-copy">
9 <primary>COPY</primary>
13 <refentrytitle>COPY</refentrytitle>
14 <manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
15 <refmiscinfo>SQL - Language Statements</refmiscinfo>
19 <refname>COPY</refname>
20 <refpurpose>copy data between a file and a table</refpurpose>
25 COPY <replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable> [ ( <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] ) ]
26 FROM { '<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable>' | PROGRAM '<replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>' | STDIN }
27 [ [ WITH ] ( <replaceable class="parameter">option</replaceable> [, ...] ) ]
29 COPY { <replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable> [ ( <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] ) ] | ( <replaceable class="parameter">query</replaceable> ) }
30 TO { '<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable>' | PROGRAM '<replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>' | STDOUT }
31 [ [ WITH ] ( <replaceable class="parameter">option</replaceable> [, ...] ) ]
33 <phrase>where <replaceable class="parameter">option</replaceable> can be one of:</phrase>
35 FORMAT <replaceable class="parameter">format_name</replaceable>
36 OIDS [ <replaceable class="parameter">boolean</replaceable> ]
37 FREEZE [ <replaceable class="parameter">boolean</replaceable> ]
38 DELIMITER '<replaceable class="parameter">delimiter_character</replaceable>'
39 NULL '<replaceable class="parameter">null_string</replaceable>'
40 HEADER [ <replaceable class="parameter">boolean</replaceable> ]
41 QUOTE '<replaceable class="parameter">quote_character</replaceable>'
42 ESCAPE '<replaceable class="parameter">escape_character</replaceable>'
43 FORCE_QUOTE { ( <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] ) | * }
44 FORCE_NOT_NULL ( <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] )
45 FORCE_NULL ( <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] )
46 ENCODING '<replaceable class="parameter">encoding_name</replaceable>'
51 <title>Description</title>
54 <command>COPY</command> moves data between
55 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> tables and standard file-system
56 files. <command>COPY TO</command> copies the contents of a table
57 <emphasis>to</> a file, while <command>COPY FROM</command> copies
58 data <emphasis>from</> a file to a table (appending the data to
59 whatever is in the table already). <command>COPY TO</command>
60 can also copy the results of a <command>SELECT</> query.
64 If a list of columns is specified, <command>COPY</command> will
65 only copy the data in the specified columns to or from the file.
66 If there are any columns in the table that are not in the column list,
67 <command>COPY FROM</command> will insert the default values for
72 <command>COPY</command> with a file name instructs the
73 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> server to directly read from
74 or write to a file. The file must be accessible to the server and
75 the name must be specified from the viewpoint of the server. When
76 <literal>PROGRAM</literal> is specified, the server executes the
77 given command, and reads from its standard input, or writes to its
78 standard output. The command must be specified from the viewpoint of the
79 server, and be executable by the <literal>postgres</> user. When
80 <literal>STDIN</literal> or <literal>STDOUT</literal> is
81 specified, data is transmitted via the connection between the
82 client and the server.
87 <title>Parameters</title>
91 <term><replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable></term>
94 The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table.
100 <term><replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable></term>
103 An optional list of columns to be copied. If no column list is
104 specified, all columns of the table will be copied.
110 <term><replaceable class="parameter">query</replaceable></term>
113 A <xref linkend="sql-select"> or
114 <xref linkend="sql-values"> command
115 whose results are to be copied.
116 Note that parentheses are required around the query.
122 <term><replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></term>
125 The path name of the input or output file. An input file name can be
126 an absolute or relative path, but an output file name must be an absolute
127 path. Windows users might need to use an <literal>E''</> string and
128 double any backslashes used in the path name.
134 <term><literal>PROGRAM</literal></term>
137 A command to execute. In <command>COPY FROM</command>, the input is
138 read from standard output of the command, and in <command>COPY TO</>,
139 the output is written to the standard input of the command.
142 Note that the command is invoked by the shell, so if you need to pass
143 any arguments to shell command that come from an untrusted source, you
144 must be careful to strip or escape any special characters that might
145 have a special meaning for the shell. For security reasons, it is best
146 to use a fixed command string, or at least avoid passing any user input
153 <term><literal>STDIN</literal></term>
156 Specifies that input comes from the client application.
162 <term><literal>STDOUT</literal></term>
165 Specifies that output goes to the client application.
171 <term><replaceable class="parameter">boolean</replaceable></term>
174 Specifies whether the selected option should be turned on or off.
175 You can write <literal>TRUE</literal>, <literal>ON</>, or
176 <literal>1</literal> to enable the option, and <literal>FALSE</literal>,
177 <literal>OFF</>, or <literal>0</literal> to disable it. The
178 <replaceable class="parameter">boolean</replaceable> value can also
179 be omitted, in which case <literal>TRUE</literal> is assumed.
185 <term><literal>FORMAT</literal></term>
188 Selects the data format to be read or written:
190 <literal>csv</> (Comma Separated Values),
191 or <literal>binary</>.
192 The default is <literal>text</>.
198 <term><literal>OIDS</literal></term>
201 Specifies copying the OID for each row. (An error is raised if
202 <literal>OIDS</literal> is specified for a table that does not
203 have OIDs, or in the case of copying a <replaceable
204 class="parameter">query</replaceable>.)
210 <term><literal>FREEZE</literal></term>
213 Requests copying the data with rows already frozen, just as they
214 would be after running the <command>VACUUM FREEZE</> command.
215 This is intended as a performance option for initial data loading.
216 Rows will be frozen only if the table being loaded has been created
217 or truncated in the current subtransaction, there are no cursors
218 open and there are no older snapshots held by this transaction.
221 Note that all other sessions will immediately be able to see the data
222 once it has been successfully loaded. This violates the normal rules
223 of MVCC visibility and users specifying should be aware of the
224 potential problems this might cause.
230 <term><literal>DELIMITER</literal></term>
233 Specifies the character that separates columns within each row
234 (line) of the file. The default is a tab character in text format,
235 a comma in <literal>CSV</> format.
236 This must be a single one-byte character.
237 This option is not allowed when using <literal>binary</> format.
243 <term><literal>NULL</literal></term>
246 Specifies the string that represents a null value. The default is
247 <literal>\N</literal> (backslash-N) in text format, and an unquoted empty
248 string in <literal>CSV</> format. You might prefer an
249 empty string even in text format for cases where you don't want to
250 distinguish nulls from empty strings.
251 This option is not allowed when using <literal>binary</> format.
256 When using <command>COPY FROM</command>, any data item that matches
257 this string will be stored as a null value, so you should make
258 sure that you use the same string as you used with
259 <command>COPY TO</command>.
267 <term><literal>HEADER</literal></term>
270 Specifies that the file contains a header line with the names of each
271 column in the file. On output, the first line contains the column
272 names from the table, and on input, the first line is ignored.
273 This option is allowed only when using <literal>CSV</> format.
279 <term><literal>QUOTE</literal></term>
282 Specifies the quoting character to be used when a data value is quoted.
283 The default is double-quote.
284 This must be a single one-byte character.
285 This option is allowed only when using <literal>CSV</> format.
291 <term><literal>ESCAPE</literal></term>
294 Specifies the character that should appear before a
295 data character that matches the <literal>QUOTE</> value.
296 The default is the same as the <literal>QUOTE</> value (so that
297 the quoting character is doubled if it appears in the data).
298 This must be a single one-byte character.
299 This option is allowed only when using <literal>CSV</> format.
305 <term><literal>FORCE_QUOTE</></term>
309 used for all non-<literal>NULL</> values in each specified column.
310 <literal>NULL</> output is never quoted. If <literal>*</> is specified,
311 non-<literal>NULL</> values will be quoted in all columns.
312 This option is allowed only in <command>COPY TO</>, and only when
313 using <literal>CSV</> format.
319 <term><literal>FORCE_NOT_NULL</></term>
322 Do not match the specified columns' values against the null string.
323 In the default case where the null string is empty, this means that
324 empty values will be read as zero-length strings rather than nulls,
325 even when they are not quoted.
326 This option is allowed only in <command>COPY FROM</>, and only when
327 using <literal>CSV</> format.
333 <term><literal>FORCE_NULL</></term>
336 Match the specified columns' values against the null string, even
337 if it has been quoted, and if a match is found set the value to
338 <literal>NULL</>. In the default case where the null string is empty,
339 this converts a quoted empty string into NULL.
340 This option is allowed only in <command>COPY FROM</>, and only when
341 using <literal>CSV</> format.
347 <term><literal>ENCODING</></term>
350 Specifies that the file is encoded in the <replaceable
351 class="parameter">encoding_name</replaceable>. If this option is
352 omitted, the current client encoding is used. See the Notes below
362 <title>Outputs</title>
365 On successful completion, a <command>COPY</> command returns a command
368 COPY <replaceable class="parameter">count</replaceable>
370 The <replaceable class="parameter">count</replaceable> is the number
376 <application>psql</> will print this command tag only if the command
377 was not <literal>COPY ... TO STDOUT</>, or the
378 equivalent <application>psql</> meta-command
379 <literal>\copy ... to stdout</>. This is to prevent confusing the
380 command tag with the data that was just printed.
389 <command>COPY</command> can only be used with plain tables, not
390 with views. However, you can write <literal>COPY (SELECT * FROM
391 <replaceable class="parameter">viewname</replaceable>) TO ...</literal>.
395 <command>COPY</command> only deals with the specific table named;
396 it does not copy data to or from child tables. Thus for example
397 <literal>COPY <replaceable class="parameter">table</> TO</literal>
398 shows the same data as <literal>SELECT * FROM ONLY <replaceable
399 class="parameter">table</></literal>. But <literal>COPY
400 (SELECT * FROM <replaceable class="parameter">table</>) TO ...</literal>
401 can be used to dump all of the data in an inheritance hierarchy.
405 You must have select privilege on the table
406 whose values are read by <command>COPY TO</command>, and
407 insert privilege on the table into which values
408 are inserted by <command>COPY FROM</command>. It is sufficient
409 to have column privileges on the column(s) listed in the command.
413 Files named in a <command>COPY</command> command are read or written
414 directly by the server, not by the client application. Therefore,
415 they must reside on or be accessible to the database server machine,
416 not the client. They must be accessible to and readable or writable
417 by the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> user (the user ID the
418 server runs as), not the client. Similarly,
419 the command specified with <literal>PROGRAM</literal> is executed directly
420 by the server, not by the client application, must be executable by the
421 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> user.
422 <command>COPY</command> naming a file or command is only allowed to
423 database superusers, since it allows reading or writing any file that the
424 server has privileges to access.
428 Do not confuse <command>COPY</command> with the
429 <application>psql</application> instruction
430 <command><link linkend="APP-PSQL-meta-commands-copy">\copy</link></command>. <command>\copy</command> invokes
431 <command>COPY FROM STDIN</command> or <command>COPY TO
432 STDOUT</command>, and then fetches/stores the data in a file
433 accessible to the <application>psql</application> client. Thus,
434 file accessibility and access rights depend on the client rather
435 than the server when <command>\copy</command> is used.
439 It is recommended that the file name used in <command>COPY</command>
440 always be specified as an absolute path. This is enforced by the
441 server in the case of <command>COPY TO</command>, but for
442 <command>COPY FROM</command> you do have the option of reading from
443 a file specified by a relative path. The path will be interpreted
444 relative to the working directory of the server process (normally
445 the cluster's data directory), not the client's working directory.
449 Executing a command with <literal>PROGRAM</literal> might be restricted
450 by the operating system's access control mechanisms, such as SELinux.
454 <command>COPY FROM</command> will invoke any triggers and check
455 constraints on the destination table. However, it will not invoke rules.
459 <command>COPY</command> input and output is affected by
460 <varname>DateStyle</varname>. To ensure portability to other
461 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> installations that might use
462 non-default <varname>DateStyle</varname> settings,
463 <varname>DateStyle</varname> should be set to <literal>ISO</> before
464 using <command>COPY TO</>. It is also a good idea to avoid dumping
465 data with <varname>IntervalStyle</varname> set to
466 <literal>sql_standard</>, because negative interval values might be
467 misinterpreted by a server that has a different setting for
468 <varname>IntervalStyle</varname>.
472 Input data is interpreted according to <literal>ENCODING</literal>
473 option or the current client encoding, and output data is encoded
474 in <literal>ENCODING</literal> or the current client encoding, even
475 if the data does not pass through the client but is read from or
476 written to a file directly by the server.
480 <command>COPY</command> stops operation at the first error. This
481 should not lead to problems in the event of a <command>COPY
482 TO</command>, but the target table will already have received
483 earlier rows in a <command>COPY FROM</command>. These rows will not
484 be visible or accessible, but they still occupy disk space. This might
485 amount to a considerable amount of wasted disk space if the failure
486 happened well into a large copy operation. You might wish to invoke
487 <command>VACUUM</command> to recover the wasted space.
493 <title>File Formats</title>
496 <title>Text Format</title>
499 When the <literal>text</> format is used,
500 the data read or written is a text file with one line per table row.
501 Columns in a row are separated by the delimiter character.
502 The column values themselves are strings generated by the
503 output function, or acceptable to the input function, of each
504 attribute's data type. The specified null string is used in
505 place of columns that are null.
506 <command>COPY FROM</command> will raise an error if any line of the
507 input file contains more or fewer columns than are expected.
508 If <literal>OIDS</literal> is specified, the OID is read or written as the first column,
509 preceding the user data columns.
513 End of data can be represented by a single line containing just
514 backslash-period (<literal>\.</>). An end-of-data marker is
515 not necessary when reading from a file, since the end of file
516 serves perfectly well; it is needed only when copying data to or from
517 client applications using pre-3.0 client protocol.
521 Backslash characters (<literal>\</>) can be used in the
522 <command>COPY</command> data to quote data characters that might
523 otherwise be taken as row or column delimiters. In particular, the
524 following characters <emphasis>must</> be preceded by a backslash if
525 they appear as part of a column value: backslash itself,
526 newline, carriage return, and the current delimiter character.
530 The specified null string is sent by <command>COPY TO</command> without
531 adding any backslashes; conversely, <command>COPY FROM</command> matches
532 the input against the null string before removing backslashes. Therefore,
533 a null string such as <literal>\N</literal> cannot be confused with
534 the actual data value <literal>\N</literal> (which would be represented
535 as <literal>\\N</literal>).
539 The following special backslash sequences are recognized by
540 <command>COPY FROM</command>:
546 <entry>Sequence</entry>
547 <entry>Represents</entry>
553 <entry><literal>\b</></entry>
554 <entry>Backspace (ASCII 8)</entry>
557 <entry><literal>\f</></entry>
558 <entry>Form feed (ASCII 12)</entry>
561 <entry><literal>\n</></entry>
562 <entry>Newline (ASCII 10)</entry>
565 <entry><literal>\r</></entry>
566 <entry>Carriage return (ASCII 13)</entry>
569 <entry><literal>\t</></entry>
570 <entry>Tab (ASCII 9)</entry>
573 <entry><literal>\v</></entry>
574 <entry>Vertical tab (ASCII 11)</entry>
577 <entry><literal>\</><replaceable>digits</></entry>
578 <entry>Backslash followed by one to three octal digits specifies
579 the character with that numeric code</entry>
582 <entry><literal>\x</><replaceable>digits</></entry>
583 <entry>Backslash <literal>x</> followed by one or two hex digits specifies
584 the character with that numeric code</entry>
590 Presently, <command>COPY TO</command> will never emit an octal or
591 hex-digits backslash sequence, but it does use the other sequences
592 listed above for those control characters.
596 Any other backslashed character that is not mentioned in the above table
597 will be taken to represent itself. However, beware of adding backslashes
598 unnecessarily, since that might accidentally produce a string matching the
599 end-of-data marker (<literal>\.</>) or the null string (<literal>\N</> by
600 default). These strings will be recognized before any other backslash
605 It is strongly recommended that applications generating <command>COPY</command> data convert
606 data newlines and carriage returns to the <literal>\n</> and
607 <literal>\r</> sequences respectively. At present it is
608 possible to represent a data carriage return by a backslash and carriage
609 return, and to represent a data newline by a backslash and newline.
610 However, these representations might not be accepted in future releases.
611 They are also highly vulnerable to corruption if the <command>COPY</command> file is
612 transferred across different machines (for example, from Unix to Windows
617 <command>COPY TO</command> will terminate each row with a Unix-style
618 newline (<quote><literal>\n</></>). Servers running on Microsoft Windows instead
619 output carriage return/newline (<quote><literal>\r\n</></>), but only for
620 <command>COPY</> to a server file; for consistency across platforms,
621 <command>COPY TO STDOUT</> always sends <quote><literal>\n</></>
622 regardless of server platform.
623 <command>COPY FROM</command> can handle lines ending with newlines,
624 carriage returns, or carriage return/newlines. To reduce the risk of
625 error due to un-backslashed newlines or carriage returns that were
626 meant as data, <command>COPY FROM</command> will complain if the line
627 endings in the input are not all alike.
632 <title>CSV Format</title>
635 This format option is used for importing and exporting the Comma
636 Separated Value (<literal>CSV</>) file format used by many other
637 programs, such as spreadsheets. Instead of the escaping rules used by
638 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>'s standard text format, it
639 produces and recognizes the common CSV escaping mechanism.
643 The values in each record are separated by the <literal>DELIMITER</>
644 character. If the value contains the delimiter character, the
645 <literal>QUOTE</> character, the <literal>NULL</> string, a carriage
646 return, or line feed character, then the whole value is prefixed and
647 suffixed by the <literal>QUOTE</> character, and any occurrence
648 within the value of a <literal>QUOTE</> character or the
649 <literal>ESCAPE</> character is preceded by the escape character.
650 You can also use <literal>FORCE_QUOTE</> to force quotes when outputting
651 non-<literal>NULL</> values in specific columns.
655 The <literal>CSV</> format has no standard way to distinguish a
656 <literal>NULL</> value from an empty string.
657 <productname>PostgreSQL</>'s <command>COPY</> handles this by quoting.
658 A <literal>NULL</> is output as the <literal>NULL</> parameter string
659 and is not quoted, while a non-<literal>NULL</> value matching the
660 <literal>NULL</> parameter string is quoted. For example, with the
661 default settings, a <literal>NULL</> is written as an unquoted empty
662 string, while an empty string data value is written with double quotes
663 (<literal>""</>). Reading values follows similar rules. You can
664 use <literal>FORCE_NOT_NULL</> to prevent <literal>NULL</> input
665 comparisons for specific columns. You can also use
666 <literal>FORCE_NULL</> to convert quoted null string data values to
671 Because backslash is not a special character in the <literal>CSV</>
672 format, <literal>\.</>, the end-of-data marker, could also appear
673 as a data value. To avoid any misinterpretation, a <literal>\.</>
674 data value appearing as a lone entry on a line is automatically
675 quoted on output, and on input, if quoted, is not interpreted as the
676 end-of-data marker. If you are loading a file created by another
677 application that has a single unquoted column and might have a
678 value of <literal>\.</>, you might need to quote that value in the
684 In <literal>CSV</> format, all characters are significant. A quoted value
685 surrounded by white space, or any characters other than
686 <literal>DELIMITER</>, will include those characters. This can cause
687 errors if you import data from a system that pads <literal>CSV</>
688 lines with white space out to some fixed width. If such a situation
689 arises you might need to preprocess the <literal>CSV</> file to remove
690 the trailing white space, before importing the data into
691 <productname>PostgreSQL</>.
697 CSV format will both recognize and produce CSV files with quoted
698 values containing embedded carriage returns and line feeds. Thus
699 the files are not strictly one line per table row like text-format
706 Many programs produce strange and occasionally perverse CSV files,
707 so the file format is more a convention than a standard. Thus you
708 might encounter some files that cannot be imported using this
709 mechanism, and <command>COPY</> might produce files that other
710 programs cannot process.
717 <title>Binary Format</title>
720 The <literal>binary</literal> format option causes all data to be
721 stored/read as binary format rather than as text. It is
722 somewhat faster than the text and <literal>CSV</> formats,
723 but a binary-format file is less portable across machine architectures and
724 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> versions.
725 Also, the binary format is very data type specific; for example
726 it will not work to output binary data from a <type>smallint</> column
727 and read it into an <type>integer</> column, even though that would work
732 The <literal>binary</> file format consists
733 of a file header, zero or more tuples containing the row data, and
734 a file trailer. Headers and data are in network byte order.
739 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> releases before 7.4 used a
740 different binary file format.
745 <title>File Header</title>
748 The file header consists of 15 bytes of fixed fields, followed
749 by a variable-length header extension area. The fixed fields are:
753 <term>Signature</term>
756 11-byte sequence <literal>PGCOPY\n\377\r\n\0</> — note that the zero byte
757 is a required part of the signature. (The signature is designed to allow
758 easy identification of files that have been munged by a non-8-bit-clean
759 transfer. This signature will be changed by end-of-line-translation
760 filters, dropped zero bytes, dropped high bits, or parity changes.)
766 <term>Flags field</term>
769 32-bit integer bit mask to denote important aspects of the file format. Bits
770 are numbered from 0 (<acronym>LSB</>) to 31 (<acronym>MSB</>). Note that
771 this field is stored in network byte order (most significant byte first),
772 as are all the integer fields used in the file format. Bits
773 16-31 are reserved to denote critical file format issues; a reader
774 should abort if it finds an unexpected bit set in this range. Bits 0-15
775 are reserved to signal backwards-compatible format issues; a reader
776 should simply ignore any unexpected bits set in this range. Currently
777 only one flag bit is defined, and the rest must be zero:
783 if 1, OIDs are included in the data; if 0, not
787 </variablelist></para>
792 <term>Header extension area length</term>
795 32-bit integer, length in bytes of remainder of header, not including self.
796 Currently, this is zero, and the first tuple follows
797 immediately. Future changes to the format might allow additional data
798 to be present in the header. A reader should silently skip over any header
799 extension data it does not know what to do with.
807 The header extension area is envisioned to contain a sequence of
808 self-identifying chunks. The flags field is not intended to tell readers
809 what is in the extension area. Specific design of header extension contents
810 is left for a later release.
814 This design allows for both backwards-compatible header additions (add
815 header extension chunks, or set low-order flag bits) and
816 non-backwards-compatible changes (set high-order flag bits to signal such
817 changes, and add supporting data to the extension area if needed).
822 <title>Tuples</title>
824 Each tuple begins with a 16-bit integer count of the number of fields in the
825 tuple. (Presently, all tuples in a table will have the same count, but that
826 might not always be true.) Then, repeated for each field in the tuple, there
827 is a 32-bit length word followed by that many bytes of field data. (The
828 length word does not include itself, and can be zero.) As a special case,
829 -1 indicates a NULL field value. No value bytes follow in the NULL case.
833 There is no alignment padding or any other extra data between fields.
837 Presently, all data values in a binary-format file are
838 assumed to be in binary format (format code one). It is anticipated that a
839 future extension might add a header field that allows per-column format codes
844 To determine the appropriate binary format for the actual tuple data you
845 should consult the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> source, in
846 particular the <function>*send</> and <function>*recv</> functions for
847 each column's data type (typically these functions are found in the
848 <filename>src/backend/utils/adt/</filename> directory of the source
853 If OIDs are included in the file, the OID field immediately follows the
854 field-count word. It is a normal field except that it's not included
855 in the field-count. In particular it has a length word — this will allow
856 handling of 4-byte vs. 8-byte OIDs without too much pain, and will allow
857 OIDs to be shown as null if that ever proves desirable.
862 <title>File Trailer</title>
865 The file trailer consists of a 16-bit integer word containing -1. This
866 is easily distinguished from a tuple's field-count word.
870 A reader should report an error if a field-count word is neither -1
871 nor the expected number of columns. This provides an extra
872 check against somehow getting out of sync with the data.
879 <title>Examples</title>
882 The following example copies a table to the client
883 using the vertical bar (<literal>|</literal>) as the field delimiter:
885 COPY country TO STDOUT (DELIMITER '|');
890 To copy data from a file into the <literal>country</> table:
892 COPY country FROM '/usr1/proj/bray/sql/country_data';
897 To copy into a file just the countries whose names start with 'A':
899 COPY (SELECT * FROM country WHERE country_name LIKE 'A%') TO '/usr1/proj/bray/sql/a_list_countries.copy';
904 To copy into a compressed file, you can pipe the output through an external
907 COPY country TO PROGRAM 'gzip > /usr1/proj/bray/sql/country_data.gz';
912 Here is a sample of data suitable for copying into a table from
913 <literal>STDIN</literal>:
921 Note that the white space on each line is actually a tab character.
925 The following is the same data, output in binary format.
926 The data is shown after filtering through the
927 Unix utility <command>od -c</command>. The table has three columns;
928 the first has type <type>char(2)</type>, the second has type <type>text</type>,
929 and the third has type <type>integer</type>. All the rows have a null value
932 0000000 P G C O P Y \n 377 \r \n \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0
933 0000020 \0 \0 \0 \0 003 \0 \0 \0 002 A F \0 \0 \0 013 A
934 0000040 F G H A N I S T A N 377 377 377 377 \0 003
935 0000060 \0 \0 \0 002 A L \0 \0 \0 007 A L B A N I
936 0000100 A 377 377 377 377 \0 003 \0 \0 \0 002 D Z \0 \0 \0
937 0000120 007 A L G E R I A 377 377 377 377 \0 003 \0 \0
938 0000140 \0 002 Z M \0 \0 \0 006 Z A M B I A 377 377
939 0000160 377 377 \0 003 \0 \0 \0 002 Z W \0 \0 \0 \b Z I
940 0000200 M B A B W E 377 377 377 377 377 377
941 </programlisting></para>
945 <title>Compatibility</title>
948 There is no <command>COPY</command> statement in the SQL standard.
952 The following syntax was used before <productname>PostgreSQL</>
953 version 9.0 and is still supported:
956 COPY <replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable> [ ( <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] ) ]
957 FROM { '<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable>' | STDIN }
961 [ DELIMITER [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">delimiter</replaceable>' ]
962 [ NULL [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">null string</replaceable>' ]
964 [ QUOTE [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">quote</replaceable>' ]
965 [ ESCAPE [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">escape</replaceable>' ]
966 [ FORCE NOT NULL <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] ] ] ]
968 COPY { <replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable> [ ( <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] ) ] | ( <replaceable class="parameter">query</replaceable> ) }
969 TO { '<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable>' | STDOUT }
973 [ DELIMITER [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">delimiter</replaceable>' ]
974 [ NULL [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">null string</replaceable>' ]
976 [ QUOTE [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">quote</replaceable>' ]
977 [ ESCAPE [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">escape</replaceable>' ]
978 [ FORCE QUOTE { <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] | * } ] ] ]
981 Note that in this syntax, <literal>BINARY</> and <literal>CSV</> are
982 treated as independent keywords, not as arguments of a <literal>FORMAT</>
987 The following syntax was used before <productname>PostgreSQL</>
988 version 7.3 and is still supported:
991 COPY [ BINARY ] <replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable> [ WITH OIDS ]
992 FROM { '<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable>' | STDIN }
993 [ [USING] DELIMITERS '<replaceable class="parameter">delimiter</replaceable>' ]
994 [ WITH NULL AS '<replaceable class="parameter">null string</replaceable>' ]
996 COPY [ BINARY ] <replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable> [ WITH OIDS ]
997 TO { '<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable>' | STDOUT }
998 [ [USING] DELIMITERS '<replaceable class="parameter">delimiter</replaceable>' ]
999 [ WITH NULL AS '<replaceable class="parameter">null string</replaceable>' ]