Re: Can COPY skip columns?

Since we can specify the order of columns in copy, how hard would it be
(he asked, naively) to specify a column name that points to /dev/null
(or the postgresql internals equivalent)? Sybase's copy utility is very
similar to our copy, and has a function that you can specify in your
column list instead of a real column name that ignores the data.

Something like

copy mytable (col1, col2, ignore(), col3) from '/tmp/dump';

Not a big deal, but kind of handy.

Ian Harding
Programmer/Analyst II
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
iharding(at)tpchd(dot)org
Phone: (253) 798-3549
Pager: (253) 754-0002

>>> Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> 11/18/04 9:15 AM >>>
Adam Witney <awitney(at)sghms(dot)ac(dot)uk> writes:
> Is it possible for the COPY command to read data from a file, but skip
> specific columns?

Nope. When you get into significant massaging of the input data,
usually the best bet is to COPY into a temp table that exactly matches
the format of the data file, and then do your rearrangements using an
INSERT/SELECT into the final target table.

regards, tom lane

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TIP 9: the planner will ignore your desire to choose an index scan if
your
joining column's datatypes do not match