Re: Setting the Field Separator in PSQL

On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 2:52 PM, David G. Johnston <
david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 2:48 PM, David G. Johnston <
> david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 1:39 PM, Osborn, Marty <marty(dot)osborn(at)rsa(dot)com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I need to change the field separator to a tab in an input SQL file.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I’ve tried every combination of tab, ‘\t’, “\t”, --field-separator=’\t’,
>>> etc, etc.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Should it be in the command line or in the SQL file?
>>>
>>> Any help?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> ​More context would helpful but keep in mind that within SQL the
>> expression:
>>
>> '\t' is a literal back-slash and a literal "t"
>>
>> E'\t' is escaped to mean <tab>​
>>
>> Dealing with the shell complicates the issue so if you can avoid it I
>> suggest that do avoid it.
>>
>>
> ​I should probably have tried my own advice first, and I still haven't,
> but the documentation states:
>
> "​"""
> fieldsep
> Specifies the field separator to be used in unaligned output format. That
> way one can create, for example, tab- or comma-separated output, which
> other programs might prefer. To set a tab as field separator, type \pset
> fieldsep '\t'. The default field separator is '|' (a vertical bar).
> ​"""​
>
> ​So I'm not sure if this report is user-error or documentation error. A
> self-contained test case would help...
>
> David J.​
>
>
​sorry...

Two more random thoughts:

Do you maybe need to altering COPY behavior:

​http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/interactive/sql-copy.html

and, if you are indeed focused on "psql OUTPUT" are you making sure you are
specifying the "unaligned" output format?

David J.