Re: COPY FROM wish list

Marc Mamin wrote:
>
> Looking at the TODO List, I feel that only some aspects of the COPY
> FROM command are adressed.
> Could a discussion trigger some activity on this topic :o) ?
>

(Sounds only of crickets chirping)...guess not. I would love to have
FEEDBACK added.

The TODO list doesn't have every COPY extension idea around on it
though. http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/COPY for example is an implicit
wishlist: "fix all these things documented as troublesome". Your
suggestions might make a good addition to that, perhaps in a section
specifically addressing "Missing Features Common to Other Database Loaders".

If you don't mind a speed loss in the process, I've found pgloader to be
a nicer interface for dealing with slightly odd data imports that don't
match the built-in COPY restrictions, it does some of the things you're
looking for: http://pgfoundry.org/projects/pgloader/

And pg_bulkload aims to handle some of the high-performance features:
http://pgbulkload.projects.postgresql.org/

The problem with working on the COPY code, from the perspective of
finding people to pay for the job, is that bulk-loading is a one-time
operation for many people. Easier to just suck it up and write a set of
one-off data massage tools than to try and fix the core to add these
capabilties.

--
Greg Smith 2ndQuadrant Baltimore, MD
PostgreSQL Training, Services and Support
greg(at)2ndQuadrant(dot)com www.2ndQuadrant.com