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Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 00:52:26 +0100 (CET)
From: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>
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To: Kenneth Evans <unicorn@unicorn.homechoice.co.uk>
Cc: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: copy from command - quotes and header lines
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Kenneth Evans writes:

> On the other hand the COPY FROM file command has it the other way round - if the separators are semi-colons then the source file
> London;12;15.7
> Paris;13;22.2
> will work
>
> but
> 'London'; '12'; '15.7'
> 'Paris';'13';'22.2'
> will not!

The COPY input data is a separate data format, so you canno expect quoting
and other features of SQL to work.  Read the documentation if you're
curious about details.

> b) My source files for populating the database tables have three header
> lines.  It would be convenient if the COPY FROM command had another
> parameter eg "HEADERS n" meaning skip first n lines of input file.

> My current workaround uses a perl pipe but I would prefer a cleaner
> solution.

What's unclean about that?

-- 
Peter Eisentraut   peter_e@gmx.net