From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:49:22 +0000 (+0000)
Subject: CSV NULL Documentation
X-Git-Tag: REL8_4_2~61
X-Git-Url: https://granicus.if.org/sourcecode?a=commitdiff_plain;h=541569caed0955bd3c6bb09d9a1d23e3d1e28da6;p=postgresql

CSV NULL Documentation

Update docs to clearly explain NULL value matching behavior, per Andrew.

Backpatch to 8.4.X.
---

diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ref/copy.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ref/copy.sgml
index 238397828f..23a3ef0b9b 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/ref/copy.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/ref/copy.sgml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <!--
-$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/copy.sgml,v 1.85.2.1 2009/09/17 21:28:30 momjian Exp $
+$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/copy.sgml,v 1.85.2.2 2009/09/17 21:49:22 momjian Exp $
 PostgreSQL documentation
 -->
 
@@ -544,10 +544,13 @@ COPY <replaceable class="parameter">count</replaceable>
    <para>
     The <literal>CSV</> format has no standard way to distinguish a
     <literal>NULL</> value from an empty string.
-    <productname>PostgreSQL</>'s <command>COPY</> handles this using
-    quoting. A <literal>NULL</> is output as an empty string without
-    quotes, while an empty string data value is double-quoted
-    (<literal>""</>).  Reading values follows similar rules. You can
+    <productname>PostgreSQL</>'s <command>COPY</> handles this by
+    quoting. A <literal>NULL</> is output as the <literal>NULL</>
+    parameter and is not quoted, while a non-NULL value matching the
+    the <literal>NULL</> parameter string is quoted. Therefore, using the default
+    settings, a <literal>NULL</> is written as an unquoted empty
+    string, while an empty string data value is written with double quotes
+    (<literal>""</>). Reading values follows similar rules. You can
     use <literal>FORCE NOT NULL</> to prevent <literal>NULL</> input
     comparisons for specific columns.
    </para>