Thread: How to import/export data from/to an ASCII file?

For example

create table testTable (
id integer,
name char(20)
);

an ASCII file format with field separator "|" is

1|Hello|
2|Again|
......

There is a way to do this in Oracle, Sybase, Informix and MySQL.
But I want to know how to do this in PostgreSQL.

Please don't tell me use pg_dump, because it is not a correct answer for

my question!

Thank you!

Try \copy or copy commands in psql:

I normally use \copy for tab-delimited files.
But copy also works and has help....

\h copy
Command:     COPY
Description: Copies data between files and tables
Syntax:
COPY [ BINARY ] table [ WITH OIDS ]    FROM { 'filename' | stdin }    [ [USING] DELIMITERS 'delimiter' ]    [ WITH NULL
AS'null string' ]
 
COPY [ BINARY ] table [ WITH OIDS ]    TO { 'filename' | stdout }    [ [USING] DELIMITERS 'delimiter' ]    [ WITH NULL
AS'null string' ]
 


Raymond Chui wrote:

> For example
> 
> create table testTable (
> id integer,
> name char(20)
> );
> 
> an ASCII file format with field separator "|" is
> 
> 1|Hello|
> 2|Again|
> .......
> 
> There is a way to do this in Oracle, Sybase, Informix and MySQL.
> But I want to know how to do this in PostgreSQL.
> 
> Please don't tell me use pg_dump, because it is not a correct answer for
> 
> my question!
> 
> Thank you!