2 doc/src/sgml/ref/copy.sgml
3 PostgreSQL documentation
7 <refentry id="SQL-COPY">
9 <refentrytitle>COPY</refentrytitle>
10 <manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
11 <refmiscinfo>SQL - Language Statements</refmiscinfo>
15 <refname>COPY</refname>
16 <refpurpose>copy data between a file and a table</refpurpose>
19 <indexterm zone="sql-copy">
20 <primary>COPY</primary>
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 ENCODING '<replaceable class="parameter">encoding_name</replaceable>'
50 <title>Description</title>
53 <command>COPY</command> moves data between
54 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> tables and standard file-system
55 files. <command>COPY TO</command> copies the contents of a table
56 <emphasis>to</> a file, while <command>COPY FROM</command> copies
57 data <emphasis>from</> a file to a table (appending the data to
58 whatever is in the table already). <command>COPY TO</command>
59 can also copy the results of a <command>SELECT</> query.
63 If a list of columns is specified, <command>COPY</command> will
64 only copy the data in the specified columns to or from the file.
65 If there are any columns in the table that are not in the column list,
66 <command>COPY FROM</command> will insert the default values for
71 <command>COPY</command> with a file name instructs the
72 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> server to directly read from
73 or write to a file. The file must be accessible to the server and
74 the name must be specified from the viewpoint of the server. When
75 <literal>PROGRAM</literal> is specified, the server executes the
76 given command, and reads from its standard input, or writes to its
77 standard output. The command must be specified from the viewpoint of the
78 server, and be executable by the <literal>postgres</> user. When
79 <literal>STDIN</literal> or <literal>STDOUT</literal> is
80 specified, data is transmitted via the connection between the
81 client and the server.
86 <title>Parameters</title>
90 <term><replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable></term>
93 The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table.
99 <term><replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable></term>
102 An optional list of columns to be copied. If no column list is
103 specified, all columns of the table will be copied.
109 <term><replaceable class="parameter">query</replaceable></term>
112 A <xref linkend="sql-select"> or
113 <xref linkend="sql-values"> command
114 whose results are to be copied.
115 Note that parentheses are required around the query.
121 <term><replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable></term>
124 The path name of the input or output file. An input filename can be
125 an absolute or relative path, but an output filename must be an absolute
126 path. Windows users might need to use an <literal>E''</> string and
127 double any backslashes used in the path name.
133 <term><literal>PROGRAM</literal></term>
136 A command to execute. In <command>COPY FROM</command>, the input is
137 read from standard output of the command, and in <command>COPY TO</>,
138 the output is written to the standard input of the command.
141 Note that the command is invoked by the shell, so if you need to pass
142 any arguments to shell command that come from an untrusted source, you
143 must be careful to strip or escape any special characters that might
144 have a special meaning for the shell. For security reasons, it is best
145 to use a fixed command string, or at least avoid passing any user input
152 <term><literal>STDIN</literal></term>
155 Specifies that input comes from the client application.
161 <term><literal>STDOUT</literal></term>
164 Specifies that output goes to the client application.
170 <term><replaceable class="parameter">boolean</replaceable></term>
173 Specifies whether the selected option should be turned on or off.
174 You can write <literal>TRUE</literal>, <literal>ON</>, or
175 <literal>1</literal> to enable the option, and <literal>FALSE</literal>,
176 <literal>OFF</>, or <literal>0</literal> to disable it. The
177 <replaceable class="parameter">boolean</replaceable> value can also
178 be omitted, in which case <literal>TRUE</literal> is assumed.
184 <term><literal>FORMAT</literal></term>
187 Selects the data format to be read or written:
189 <literal>csv</> (Comma Separated Values),
190 or <literal>binary</>.
191 The default is <literal>text</>.
197 <term><literal>OIDS</literal></term>
200 Specifies copying the OID for each row. (An error is raised if
201 <literal>OIDS</literal> is specified for a table that does not
202 have OIDs, or in the case of copying a <replaceable
203 class="parameter">query</replaceable>.)
209 <term><literal>FREEZE</literal></term>
212 Requests copying the data with rows already frozen, just as they
213 would be after running the <command>VACUUM FREEZE</> command.
214 This is intended as a performance option for initial data loading.
215 Rows will be frozen only if the table being loaded has been created
216 or truncated in the current subtransaction, there are no cursors
217 open and there are no older snapshots held by this transaction.
220 Note that all other sessions will immediately be able to see the data
221 once it has been successfully loaded. This violates the normal rules
222 of MVCC visibility and users specifying should be aware of the
223 potential problems this might cause.
229 <term><literal>DELIMITER</literal></term>
232 Specifies the character that separates columns within each row
233 (line) of the file. The default is a tab character in text format,
234 a comma in <literal>CSV</> format.
235 This must be a single one-byte character.
236 This option is not allowed when using <literal>binary</> format.
242 <term><literal>NULL</literal></term>
245 Specifies the string that represents a null value. The default is
246 <literal>\N</literal> (backslash-N) in text format, and an unquoted empty
247 string in <literal>CSV</> format. You might prefer an
248 empty string even in text format for cases where you don't want to
249 distinguish nulls from empty strings.
250 This option is not allowed when using <literal>binary</> format.
255 When using <command>COPY FROM</command>, any data item that matches
256 this string will be stored as a null value, so you should make
257 sure that you use the same string as you used with
258 <command>COPY TO</command>.
266 <term><literal>HEADER</literal></term>
269 Specifies that the file contains a header line with the names of each
270 column in the file. On output, the first line contains the column
271 names from the table, and on input, the first line is ignored.
272 This option is allowed only when using <literal>CSV</> format.
278 <term><literal>QUOTE</literal></term>
281 Specifies the quoting character to be used when a data value is quoted.
282 The default is double-quote.
283 This must be a single one-byte character.
284 This option is allowed only when using <literal>CSV</> format.
290 <term><literal>ESCAPE</literal></term>
293 Specifies the character that should appear before a
294 data character that matches the <literal>QUOTE</> value.
295 The default is the same as the <literal>QUOTE</> value (so that
296 the quoting character is doubled if it appears in the data).
297 This must be a single one-byte character.
298 This option is allowed only when using <literal>CSV</> format.
304 <term><literal>FORCE_QUOTE</></term>
308 used for all non-<literal>NULL</> values in each specified column.
309 <literal>NULL</> output is never quoted. If <literal>*</> is specified,
310 non-<literal>NULL</> values will be quoted in all columns.
311 This option is allowed only in <command>COPY TO</>, and only when
312 using <literal>CSV</> format.
318 <term><literal>FORCE_NOT_NULL</></term>
321 Do not match the specified columns' values against the null string.
322 In the default case where the null string is empty, this means that
323 empty values will be read as zero-length strings rather than nulls,
324 even when they are not quoted.
325 This option is allowed only in <command>COPY FROM</>, and only when
326 using <literal>CSV</> format.
332 <term><literal>ENCODING</></term>
335 Specifies that the file is encoded in the <replaceable
336 class="parameter">encoding_name</replaceable>. If this option is
337 omitted, the current client encoding is used. See the Notes below
347 <title>Outputs</title>
350 On successful completion, a <command>COPY</> command returns a command
353 COPY <replaceable class="parameter">count</replaceable>
355 The <replaceable class="parameter">count</replaceable> is the number
364 <command>COPY</command> can only be used with plain tables, not
365 with views. However, you can write <literal>COPY (SELECT * FROM
366 <replaceable class="parameter">viewname</replaceable>) TO ...</literal>.
370 <command>COPY</command> only deals with the specific table named;
371 it does not copy data to or from child tables. Thus for example
372 <literal>COPY <replaceable class="parameter">table</> TO</literal>
373 shows the same data as <literal>SELECT * FROM ONLY <replaceable
374 class="parameter">table</></literal>. But <literal>COPY
375 (SELECT * FROM <replaceable class="parameter">table</>) TO ...</literal>
376 can be used to dump all of the data in an inheritance hierarchy.
380 You must have select privilege on the table
381 whose values are read by <command>COPY TO</command>, and
382 insert privilege on the table into which values
383 are inserted by <command>COPY FROM</command>. It is sufficient
384 to have column privileges on the column(s) listed in the command.
388 Files named in a <command>COPY</command> command are read or written
389 directly by the server, not by the client application. Therefore,
390 they must reside on or be accessible to the database server machine,
391 not the client. They must be accessible to and readable or writable
392 by the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> user (the user ID the
393 server runs as), not the client. Similarly,
394 the command specified with <literal>PROGRAM</literal> is executed directly
395 by the server, not by the client application, must be executable by the
396 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> user.
397 <command>COPY</command> naming a file or command is only allowed to
398 database superusers, since it allows reading or writing any file that the
399 server has privileges to access.
403 Do not confuse <command>COPY</command> with the
404 <application>psql</application> instruction
405 <command><link linkend="APP-PSQL-meta-commands-copy">\copy</link></command>. <command>\copy</command> invokes
406 <command>COPY FROM STDIN</command> or <command>COPY TO
407 STDOUT</command>, and then fetches/stores the data in a file
408 accessible to the <application>psql</application> client. Thus,
409 file accessibility and access rights depend on the client rather
410 than the server when <command>\copy</command> is used.
414 It is recommended that the file name used in <command>COPY</command>
415 always be specified as an absolute path. This is enforced by the
416 server in the case of <command>COPY TO</command>, but for
417 <command>COPY FROM</command> you do have the option of reading from
418 a file specified by a relative path. The path will be interpreted
419 relative to the working directory of the server process (normally
420 the cluster's data directory), not the client's working directory.
424 Executing a command with <literal>PROGRAM</literal> might be restricted
425 by the operating system's access control mechanisms, such as SELinux.
429 <command>COPY FROM</command> will invoke any triggers and check
430 constraints on the destination table. However, it will not invoke rules.
434 <command>COPY</command> input and output is affected by
435 <varname>DateStyle</varname>. To ensure portability to other
436 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> installations that might use
437 non-default <varname>DateStyle</varname> settings,
438 <varname>DateStyle</varname> should be set to <literal>ISO</> before
439 using <command>COPY TO</>. It is also a good idea to avoid dumping
440 data with <varname>IntervalStyle</varname> set to
441 <literal>sql_standard</>, because negative interval values might be
442 misinterpreted by a server that has a different setting for
443 <varname>IntervalStyle</varname>.
447 Input data is interpreted according to <literal>ENCODING</literal>
448 option or the current client encoding, and output data is encoded
449 in <literal>ENCODING</literal> or the current client encoding, even
450 if the data does not pass through the client but is read from or
451 written to a file directly by the server.
455 <command>COPY</command> stops operation at the first error. This
456 should not lead to problems in the event of a <command>COPY
457 TO</command>, but the target table will already have received
458 earlier rows in a <command>COPY FROM</command>. These rows will not
459 be visible or accessible, but they still occupy disk space. This might
460 amount to a considerable amount of wasted disk space if the failure
461 happened well into a large copy operation. You might wish to invoke
462 <command>VACUUM</command> to recover the wasted space.
468 <title>File Formats</title>
471 <title>Text Format</title>
474 When the <literal>text</> format is used,
475 the data read or written is a text file with one line per table row.
476 Columns in a row are separated by the delimiter character.
477 The column values themselves are strings generated by the
478 output function, or acceptable to the input function, of each
479 attribute's data type. The specified null string is used in
480 place of columns that are null.
481 <command>COPY FROM</command> will raise an error if any line of the
482 input file contains more or fewer columns than are expected.
483 If <literal>OIDS</literal> is specified, the OID is read or written as the first column,
484 preceding the user data columns.
488 End of data can be represented by a single line containing just
489 backslash-period (<literal>\.</>). An end-of-data marker is
490 not necessary when reading from a file, since the end of file
491 serves perfectly well; it is needed only when copying data to or from
492 client applications using pre-3.0 client protocol.
496 Backslash characters (<literal>\</>) can be used in the
497 <command>COPY</command> data to quote data characters that might
498 otherwise be taken as row or column delimiters. In particular, the
499 following characters <emphasis>must</> be preceded by a backslash if
500 they appear as part of a column value: backslash itself,
501 newline, carriage return, and the current delimiter character.
505 The specified null string is sent by <command>COPY TO</command> without
506 adding any backslashes; conversely, <command>COPY FROM</command> matches
507 the input against the null string before removing backslashes. Therefore,
508 a null string such as <literal>\N</literal> cannot be confused with
509 the actual data value <literal>\N</literal> (which would be represented
510 as <literal>\\N</literal>).
514 The following special backslash sequences are recognized by
515 <command>COPY FROM</command>:
521 <entry>Sequence</entry>
522 <entry>Represents</entry>
528 <entry><literal>\b</></entry>
529 <entry>Backspace (ASCII 8)</entry>
532 <entry><literal>\f</></entry>
533 <entry>Form feed (ASCII 12)</entry>
536 <entry><literal>\n</></entry>
537 <entry>Newline (ASCII 10)</entry>
540 <entry><literal>\r</></entry>
541 <entry>Carriage return (ASCII 13)</entry>
544 <entry><literal>\t</></entry>
545 <entry>Tab (ASCII 9)</entry>
548 <entry><literal>\v</></entry>
549 <entry>Vertical tab (ASCII 11)</entry>
552 <entry><literal>\</><replaceable>digits</></entry>
553 <entry>Backslash followed by one to three octal digits specifies
554 the character with that numeric code</entry>
557 <entry><literal>\x</><replaceable>digits</></entry>
558 <entry>Backslash <literal>x</> followed by one or two hex digits specifies
559 the character with that numeric code</entry>
565 Presently, <command>COPY TO</command> will never emit an octal or
566 hex-digits backslash sequence, but it does use the other sequences
567 listed above for those control characters.
571 Any other backslashed character that is not mentioned in the above table
572 will be taken to represent itself. However, beware of adding backslashes
573 unnecessarily, since that might accidentally produce a string matching the
574 end-of-data marker (<literal>\.</>) or the null string (<literal>\N</> by
575 default). These strings will be recognized before any other backslash
580 It is strongly recommended that applications generating <command>COPY</command> data convert
581 data newlines and carriage returns to the <literal>\n</> and
582 <literal>\r</> sequences respectively. At present it is
583 possible to represent a data carriage return by a backslash and carriage
584 return, and to represent a data newline by a backslash and newline.
585 However, these representations might not be accepted in future releases.
586 They are also highly vulnerable to corruption if the <command>COPY</command> file is
587 transferred across different machines (for example, from Unix to Windows
592 <command>COPY TO</command> will terminate each row with a Unix-style
593 newline (<quote><literal>\n</></>). Servers running on Microsoft Windows instead
594 output carriage return/newline (<quote><literal>\r\n</></>), but only for
595 <command>COPY</> to a server file; for consistency across platforms,
596 <command>COPY TO STDOUT</> always sends <quote><literal>\n</></>
597 regardless of server platform.
598 <command>COPY FROM</command> can handle lines ending with newlines,
599 carriage returns, or carriage return/newlines. To reduce the risk of
600 error due to un-backslashed newlines or carriage returns that were
601 meant as data, <command>COPY FROM</command> will complain if the line
602 endings in the input are not all alike.
607 <title>CSV Format</title>
610 This format option is used for importing and exporting the Comma
611 Separated Value (<literal>CSV</>) file format used by many other
612 programs, such as spreadsheets. Instead of the escaping rules used by
613 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>'s standard text format, it
614 produces and recognizes the common CSV escaping mechanism.
618 The values in each record are separated by the <literal>DELIMITER</>
619 character. If the value contains the delimiter character, the
620 <literal>QUOTE</> character, the <literal>NULL</> string, a carriage
621 return, or line feed character, then the whole value is prefixed and
622 suffixed by the <literal>QUOTE</> character, and any occurrence
623 within the value of a <literal>QUOTE</> character or the
624 <literal>ESCAPE</> character is preceded by the escape character.
625 You can also use <literal>FORCE_QUOTE</> to force quotes when outputting
626 non-<literal>NULL</> values in specific columns.
630 The <literal>CSV</> format has no standard way to distinguish a
631 <literal>NULL</> value from an empty string.
632 <productname>PostgreSQL</>'s <command>COPY</> handles this by quoting.
633 A <literal>NULL</> is output as the <literal>NULL</> parameter string
634 and is not quoted, while a non-<literal>NULL</> value matching the
635 <literal>NULL</> parameter string is quoted. For example, with the
636 default settings, a <literal>NULL</> is written as an unquoted empty
637 string, while an empty string data value is written with double quotes
638 (<literal>""</>). Reading values follows similar rules. You can
639 use <literal>FORCE_NOT_NULL</> to prevent <literal>NULL</> input
640 comparisons for specific columns.
644 Because backslash is not a special character in the <literal>CSV</>
645 format, <literal>\.</>, the end-of-data marker, could also appear
646 as a data value. To avoid any misinterpretation, a <literal>\.</>
647 data value appearing as a lone entry on a line is automatically
648 quoted on output, and on input, if quoted, is not interpreted as the
649 end-of-data marker. If you are loading a file created by another
650 application that has a single unquoted column and might have a
651 value of <literal>\.</>, you might need to quote that value in the
657 In <literal>CSV</> format, all characters are significant. A quoted value
658 surrounded by white space, or any characters other than
659 <literal>DELIMITER</>, will include those characters. This can cause
660 errors if you import data from a system that pads <literal>CSV</>
661 lines with white space out to some fixed width. If such a situation
662 arises you might need to preprocess the <literal>CSV</> file to remove
663 the trailing white space, before importing the data into
664 <productname>PostgreSQL</>.
670 CSV format will both recognize and produce CSV files with quoted
671 values containing embedded carriage returns and line feeds. Thus
672 the files are not strictly one line per table row like text-format
679 Many programs produce strange and occasionally perverse CSV files,
680 so the file format is more a convention than a standard. Thus you
681 might encounter some files that cannot be imported using this
682 mechanism, and <command>COPY</> might produce files that other
683 programs cannot process.
690 <title>Binary Format</title>
693 The <literal>binary</literal> format option causes all data to be
694 stored/read as binary format rather than as text. It is
695 somewhat faster than the text and <literal>CSV</> formats,
696 but a binary-format file is less portable across machine architectures and
697 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> versions.
698 Also, the binary format is very data type specific; for example
699 it will not work to output binary data from a <type>smallint</> column
700 and read it into an <type>integer</> column, even though that would work
705 The <literal>binary</> file format consists
706 of a file header, zero or more tuples containing the row data, and
707 a file trailer. Headers and data are in network byte order.
712 <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> releases before 7.4 used a
713 different binary file format.
718 <title>File Header</title>
721 The file header consists of 15 bytes of fixed fields, followed
722 by a variable-length header extension area. The fixed fields are:
726 <term>Signature</term>
729 11-byte sequence <literal>PGCOPY\n\377\r\n\0</> — note that the zero byte
730 is a required part of the signature. (The signature is designed to allow
731 easy identification of files that have been munged by a non-8-bit-clean
732 transfer. This signature will be changed by end-of-line-translation
733 filters, dropped zero bytes, dropped high bits, or parity changes.)
739 <term>Flags field</term>
742 32-bit integer bit mask to denote important aspects of the file format. Bits
743 are numbered from 0 (<acronym>LSB</>) to 31 (<acronym>MSB</>). Note that
744 this field is stored in network byte order (most significant byte first),
745 as are all the integer fields used in the file format. Bits
746 16-31 are reserved to denote critical file format issues; a reader
747 should abort if it finds an unexpected bit set in this range. Bits 0-15
748 are reserved to signal backwards-compatible format issues; a reader
749 should simply ignore any unexpected bits set in this range. Currently
750 only one flag bit is defined, and the rest must be zero:
756 if 1, OIDs are included in the data; if 0, not
760 </variablelist></para>
765 <term>Header extension area length</term>
768 32-bit integer, length in bytes of remainder of header, not including self.
769 Currently, this is zero, and the first tuple follows
770 immediately. Future changes to the format might allow additional data
771 to be present in the header. A reader should silently skip over any header
772 extension data it does not know what to do with.
780 The header extension area is envisioned to contain a sequence of
781 self-identifying chunks. The flags field is not intended to tell readers
782 what is in the extension area. Specific design of header extension contents
783 is left for a later release.
787 This design allows for both backwards-compatible header additions (add
788 header extension chunks, or set low-order flag bits) and
789 non-backwards-compatible changes (set high-order flag bits to signal such
790 changes, and add supporting data to the extension area if needed).
795 <title>Tuples</title>
797 Each tuple begins with a 16-bit integer count of the number of fields in the
798 tuple. (Presently, all tuples in a table will have the same count, but that
799 might not always be true.) Then, repeated for each field in the tuple, there
800 is a 32-bit length word followed by that many bytes of field data. (The
801 length word does not include itself, and can be zero.) As a special case,
802 -1 indicates a NULL field value. No value bytes follow in the NULL case.
806 There is no alignment padding or any other extra data between fields.
810 Presently, all data values in a binary-format file are
811 assumed to be in binary format (format code one). It is anticipated that a
812 future extension might add a header field that allows per-column format codes
817 To determine the appropriate binary format for the actual tuple data you
818 should consult the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> source, in
819 particular the <function>*send</> and <function>*recv</> functions for
820 each column's data type (typically these functions are found in the
821 <filename>src/backend/utils/adt/</filename> directory of the source
826 If OIDs are included in the file, the OID field immediately follows the
827 field-count word. It is a normal field except that it's not included
828 in the field-count. In particular it has a length word — this will allow
829 handling of 4-byte vs. 8-byte OIDs without too much pain, and will allow
830 OIDs to be shown as null if that ever proves desirable.
835 <title>File Trailer</title>
838 The file trailer consists of a 16-bit integer word containing -1. This
839 is easily distinguished from a tuple's field-count word.
843 A reader should report an error if a field-count word is neither -1
844 nor the expected number of columns. This provides an extra
845 check against somehow getting out of sync with the data.
852 <title>Examples</title>
855 The following example copies a table to the client
856 using the vertical bar (<literal>|</literal>) as the field delimiter:
858 COPY country TO STDOUT (DELIMITER '|');
863 To copy data from a file into the <literal>country</> table:
865 COPY country FROM '/usr1/proj/bray/sql/country_data';
870 To copy into a file just the countries whose names start with 'A':
872 COPY (SELECT * FROM country WHERE country_name LIKE 'A%') TO '/usr1/proj/bray/sql/a_list_countries.copy';
877 To copy into a compressed file, you can pipe the output through an external
880 COPY country TO PROGRAM 'gzip > /usr1/proj/bray/sql/country_data.gz';
885 Here is a sample of data suitable for copying into a table from
886 <literal>STDIN</literal>:
894 Note that the white space on each line is actually a tab character.
898 The following is the same data, output in binary format.
899 The data is shown after filtering through the
900 Unix utility <command>od -c</command>. The table has three columns;
901 the first has type <type>char(2)</type>, the second has type <type>text</type>,
902 and the third has type <type>integer</type>. All the rows have a null value
905 0000000 P G C O P Y \n 377 \r \n \0 \0 \0 \0 \0 \0
906 0000020 \0 \0 \0 \0 003 \0 \0 \0 002 A F \0 \0 \0 013 A
907 0000040 F G H A N I S T A N 377 377 377 377 \0 003
908 0000060 \0 \0 \0 002 A L \0 \0 \0 007 A L B A N I
909 0000100 A 377 377 377 377 \0 003 \0 \0 \0 002 D Z \0 \0 \0
910 0000120 007 A L G E R I A 377 377 377 377 \0 003 \0 \0
911 0000140 \0 002 Z M \0 \0 \0 006 Z A M B I A 377 377
912 0000160 377 377 \0 003 \0 \0 \0 002 Z W \0 \0 \0 \b Z I
913 0000200 M B A B W E 377 377 377 377 377 377
914 </programlisting></para>
918 <title>Compatibility</title>
921 There is no <command>COPY</command> statement in the SQL standard.
925 The following syntax was used before <productname>PostgreSQL</>
926 version 9.0 and is still supported:
929 COPY <replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable> [ ( <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] ) ]
930 FROM { '<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable>' | STDIN }
934 [ DELIMITER [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">delimiter</replaceable>' ]
935 [ NULL [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">null string</replaceable>' ]
937 [ QUOTE [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">quote</replaceable>' ]
938 [ ESCAPE [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">escape</replaceable>' ]
939 [ FORCE NOT NULL <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] ] ] ]
941 COPY { <replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable> [ ( <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] ) ] | ( <replaceable class="parameter">query</replaceable> ) }
942 TO { '<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable>' | STDOUT }
946 [ DELIMITER [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">delimiter</replaceable>' ]
947 [ NULL [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">null string</replaceable>' ]
949 [ QUOTE [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">quote</replaceable>' ]
950 [ ESCAPE [ AS ] '<replaceable class="parameter">escape</replaceable>' ]
951 [ FORCE QUOTE { <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] | * } ] ] ]
954 Note that in this syntax, <literal>BINARY</> and <literal>CSV</> are
955 treated as independent keywords, not as arguments of a <literal>FORMAT</>
960 The following syntax was used before <productname>PostgreSQL</>
961 version 7.3 and is still supported:
964 COPY [ BINARY ] <replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable> [ WITH OIDS ]
965 FROM { '<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable>' | STDIN }
966 [ [USING] DELIMITERS '<replaceable class="parameter">delimiter</replaceable>' ]
967 [ WITH NULL AS '<replaceable class="parameter">null string</replaceable>' ]
969 COPY [ BINARY ] <replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable> [ WITH OIDS ]
970 TO { '<replaceable class="parameter">filename</replaceable>' | STDOUT }
971 [ [USING] DELIMITERS '<replaceable class="parameter">delimiter</replaceable>' ]
972 [ WITH NULL AS '<replaceable class="parameter">null string</replaceable>' ]