The following bug has been logged online:
Bug reference: 4486
Logged by: Andrew Grillet
Email address: andrew@grillet.co.uk
PostgreSQL version: 8.3
Operating system: Windows XP
Description: CSV feature request
Details:
Excel 2007 decides on the fly whether to quote fields or not on the basis of
whther individual rows have a comma in that field. There does not appear any
obvious way to prevent this bizarre behaviour.
I suggest the syntax:
COPY table (columns) FROM 'filename.csv. with csv OPTIONAL QUOTE [AS '"'];
As a way to tell PostgreSQL this behaviour is expected and must be handled
without complaint. Default should be to complain if file is stupidly
formatted.
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Additionally, where a character that is not a member of the acceptable
character set is found, plese attempt to print it as char as well as
octal/hex. It can be very difficult to find which character is causeing the
problem! (Eg em-dashes, smart quotes)