Re: COPY commands could use an enhancement. - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Fernando Nasser
Subject Re: COPY commands could use an enhancement.
Date
Msg-id 3AEDA0AA.F09B17C@redhat.com
Whole thread Raw
In response to COPY commands could use an enhancement.  (Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net>)
List pgsql-hackers
Karen saw me importing data into a database using pgaccess.

Again, this could be useful to someone that it is not a "superuser". 
But only superusers can use pgaccess.  What a shame :-(

Fernando

P.S.: pgaccess has a much more limited import facility - only text files
and you can only change the delimiter.  But it can be expanded.


Tom Lane wrote:
> 
> Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net> writes:
> > It would be very helpful if the COPY command could be expanded
> > in order to provide positional parameters.
> 
> I think it's a bad idea to try to expand COPY into a full-tilt data
> import/conversion utility, which is the direction that this sort of
> suggestion is headed in.  COPY is designed as a simple, fast, reliable,
> low-overhead data transfer mechanism for backup and restore.  The more
> warts we add to it, the less well it will serve that purpose.
> 
> Example: if we allow selective column import, what do we do with missing
> columns?  Must COPY now be able to handle insertion of default-value
> expressions?
> 
> I think it'd be better to put effort into an external data translation
> utility that can deal with column selection, data reformatting, CR/LF
> conversion, and all those other silly little issues that come up when
> you need to move data from one DBMS to another.  Sure, we could make
> the backend do some of this stuff, but it'd be more maintainable as a
> separate program ... IMHO anyway.  I think that pgaccess and pgadmin
> already have some capability in this line, BTW.
> 
>                         regards, tom lane
> 
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-- 
Fernando Nasser
Red Hat Canada Ltd.                     E-Mail:  fnasser@redhat.com
2323 Yonge Street, Suite #300
Toronto, Ontario   M4P 2C9


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