Re: using tab delimiter for csv format import

On Tue, 2013-02-26 at 12:41 -0800, Jeff Janes wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 24, 2013 at 1:47 AM, Guillaume Lelarge
> <guillaume(at)lelarge(dot)info>wrote:
>
> > On Sun, 2013-01-13 at 11:08 -0800, Jeff Janes wrote:
> > > I have a tab-delimited text file I want to import into a table.
> > > However, I do not want \t translated to tab characters, etc., which is
> > > what the "text" format does. My file does not contain any special
> > > characters in need of escaping, and \ always just represents itself.
> > >
> > > So instead I want to use the "csv" format and specify the tab as the
> > > delimiter (on the "misc. options" tab). But, tab does not appear in
> > > the drop down list, and since typing tab changes the focus, a literal
> > > tab cannot by typed into this field. I could get around this by
> > > typing a tab into WordPad, then copying and pasting it into the
> > > delimiter field. But it would much nicer if the tab character was
> > > present in the delimiter drop down list (visibly represented by, say,
> > > "<tab>").
> > >
> >
> > I wonder how this could work through a COPY command. Did you try?
> > because the import tool is a simple wrapper around the COPY command.
> >
>
> Yes, I can do this with a COPY command. For example, I can use from psql:
>
> copy foo from '/tmp/foo.txt' with (format csv, delimiter E'\t')
>
> I can also use a literal tab character within single quotes rather than the
> E'\t'. Because psql wants to do tab completion when you hit tab, you have
> to first hit ctrl-V, then tab, in order to get a literal tab. (A trick
> that works in readline-based programs, but of course not GUIs)
>

OK, understood. I added the [tab] option for the next feature release.

Thanks for the idea.

--
Guillaume
http://blog.guillaume.lelarge.info
http://www.dalibo.com