Re: Separating data sets in a table

On Mon, 2002-08-26 at 07:26, Andreas Tille wrote:
> Well for sure this might be an option but as I said I receive the data
> in the dump format apropriate to use "COPY <tablemane> FROM <file>". Would
> you really like to suggest me to split those data sets into single lines?
> Moreover I'm not sure about how to catch the error messages of failed
> COPY statements.

How about this approach:

Create a temporary table (no constraints)

CREATE TEMP TABLE temptable AS
(SELECT * FROM tablename LIMIT 1);
DELETE FROM temptable;

Copy all data into the temporary table

COPY temptable FROM 'filepath';

Select from the temporary table all items that satisfy the
constraints, insert them into the real table and delete them from
the temporary table:

BEGIN;
INSERT INTO tablename (SELECT * FROM temptable WHERE ...);
DELETE FROM temptable WHERE ...;
COMMIT;

All good data should now be in place. The temporary table should
now contain only those items that do not satisfy the constraints for
the real table.

--
Oliver Elphick Oliver(dot)Elphick(at)lfix(dot)co(dot)uk
Isle of Wight, UK
http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver
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