Export specific rows from a PostgreSQL table as INSERT SQL script - sql

Question

I have a database schema named: nyummy and a table named cimory:
create table nyummy.cimory (
id numeric(10,0) not null,
name character varying(60) not null,
city character varying(50) not null,
CONSTRAINT cimory_pkey PRIMARY KEY (id)
);
I want to export the cimory table's data as insert SQL script file. However, I only want to export records/data where the city is equal to 'tokyo' (assume city data are all lowercase).
How to do it?
It doesn't matter whether the solution is in freeware GUI tools or command line (although GUI tools solution is better). I had tried pgAdmin III, but I can't find an option to do this.

Answer 1

Create a table with the set you want to export and then use the command line utility pg_dump to export to a file:
create table export_table as
select id, name, city
from nyummy.cimory
where city = 'tokyo'
$ pg_dump --table=export_table --data-only --column-inserts my_database > data.sql
--column-inserts will dump as insert commands with column names.
--data-only do not dump schema.
As commented below, creating a view in instead of a table will obviate the table creation whenever a new export is necessary.

Answer 2

To export data only use COPY:
COPY (SELECT * FROM nyummy.cimory WHERE city = 'tokio') TO '/path/to/file.csv';
You can export a whole table, only selected columns, or the result of a query as demonstrated. No need to create a table explicitly.
You get a file with one table row per line as plain text (not INSERT commands). Smaller and faster than INSERT commands.
To import the same to another Postgres table of matching structure anywhere (columns in same order, data types compatible!):
COPY other_tbl FROM '/path/to/file.csv';
COPY writes and reads files local to the server, unlike client programs like pg_dump or psql which read and write files local to the client. If both run on the same machine, it doesn't matter much, but it does for remote connections.
There is also the \copy command of psql:
Performs a frontend (client) copy. This is an operation that runs an
SQL COPY command, but instead of the server reading or
writing the specified file, psql reads or writes the file and routes
the data between the server and the local file system. This means that
file accessibility and privileges are those of the local user, not the server, and no SQL superuser privileges are required.
Same syntax as above. Just replace COPY with \copy.

Answer 3

This is an easy and fast way to export a table to a script with pgAdmin manually without extra installations:
Right click on target table and select "Backup".
Select a file path to store the backup. As Format choose "Plain".
Open the tab "Dump Options #2" at the bottom and check "Use Column Inserts".
Click the Backup-button.
If you open the resulting file with a text reader (e.g. notepad++) you get a script to create the whole table. From there you can simply copy the generated INSERT-Statements.
This method also works with the technique of making an export_table as demonstrated in #Clodoaldo Neto's answer.

Answer 4

For my use-case I was able to simply pipe to grep.
pg_dump -U user_name --data-only --column-inserts -t nyummy.cimory | grep "tokyo" > tokyo.sql

Answer 5

SQL Workbench has such a feature.
After running a query, right click on the query results and choose "Copy Data As SQL > SQL Insert"

Answer 6

I tried to write a procedure doing that, based on #PhilHibbs codes, on a different way.
Please have a look and test.
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION dump(IN p_schema text, IN p_table text, IN p_where text)
RETURNS setof text AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
dumpquery_0 text;
dumpquery_1 text;
selquery text;
selvalue text;
valrec record;
colrec record;
BEGIN
-- ------ --
-- GLOBAL --
-- build base INSERT
-- build SELECT array[ ... ]
dumpquery_0 := 'INSERT INTO ' || quote_ident(p_schema) || '.' || quote_ident(p_table) || '(';
selquery := 'SELECT array[';
<<label0>>
FOR colrec IN SELECT table_schema, table_name, column_name, data_type
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_name = p_table and table_schema = p_schema
ORDER BY ordinal_position
LOOP
dumpquery_0 := dumpquery_0 || quote_ident(colrec.column_name) || ',';
selquery := selquery || 'CAST(' || quote_ident(colrec.column_name) || ' AS TEXT),';
END LOOP label0;
dumpquery_0 := substring(dumpquery_0 ,1,length(dumpquery_0)-1) || ')';
dumpquery_0 := dumpquery_0 || ' VALUES (';
selquery := substring(selquery ,1,length(selquery)-1) || '] AS MYARRAY';
selquery := selquery || ' FROM ' ||quote_ident(p_schema)||'.'||quote_ident(p_table);
selquery := selquery || ' WHERE '||p_where;
-- GLOBAL --
-- ------ --
-- ----------- --
-- SELECT LOOP --
-- execute SELECT built and loop on each row
<<label1>>
FOR valrec IN EXECUTE selquery
LOOP
dumpquery_1 := '';
IF not found THEN
EXIT ;
END IF;
-- ----------- --
-- LOOP ARRAY (EACH FIELDS) --
<<label2>>
FOREACH selvalue in ARRAY valrec.MYARRAY
LOOP
IF selvalue IS NULL
THEN selvalue := 'NULL';
ELSE selvalue := quote_literal(selvalue);
END IF;
dumpquery_1 := dumpquery_1 || selvalue || ',';
END LOOP label2;
dumpquery_1 := substring(dumpquery_1 ,1,length(dumpquery_1)-1) || ');';
-- LOOP ARRAY (EACH FIELD) --
-- ----------- --
-- debug: RETURN NEXT dumpquery_0 || dumpquery_1 || ' --' || selquery;
-- debug: RETURN NEXT selquery;
RETURN NEXT dumpquery_0 || dumpquery_1;
END LOOP label1 ;
-- SELECT LOOP --
-- ----------- --
RETURN ;
END
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE;
And then :
-- for a range
SELECT dump('public', 'my_table','my_id between 123456 and 123459');
-- for the entire table
SELECT dump('public', 'my_table','true');
tested on my postgres 9.1, with a table with mixed field datatype (text, double, int,timestamp without time zone, etc).
That's why the CAST in TEXT type is needed.
My test run correctly for about 9M lines, looks like it fail just before 18 minutes of running.
ps : I found an equivalent for mysql on the WEB.

Answer 7

You can make view of the table with specifit records and then dump sql file
CREATE VIEW foo AS
SELECT id,name,city FROM nyummy.cimory WHERE city = 'tokyo'

Answer 8

I just knocked up a quick procedure to do this. It only works for a single row, so I create a temporary view that just selects the row I want, and then replace the pg_temp.temp_view with the actual table that I want to insert into.
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION dv_util.gen_insert_statement(IN p_schema text, IN p_table text)
RETURNS text AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
selquery text;
valquery text;
selvalue text;
colvalue text;
colrec record;
BEGIN
selquery := 'INSERT INTO ' || quote_ident(p_schema) || '.' || quote_ident(p_table);
selquery := selquery || '(';
valquery := ' VALUES (';
FOR colrec IN SELECT table_schema, table_name, column_name, data_type
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_name = p_table and table_schema = p_schema
ORDER BY ordinal_position
LOOP
selquery := selquery || quote_ident(colrec.column_name) || ',';
selvalue :=
'SELECT CASE WHEN ' || quote_ident(colrec.column_name) || ' IS NULL' ||
' THEN ''NULL''' ||
' ELSE '''' || quote_literal('|| quote_ident(colrec.column_name) || ')::text || ''''' ||
' END' ||
' FROM '||quote_ident(p_schema)||'.'||quote_ident(p_table);
EXECUTE selvalue INTO colvalue;
valquery := valquery || colvalue || ',';
END LOOP;
-- Replace the last , with a )
selquery := substring(selquery,1,length(selquery)-1) || ')';
valquery := substring(valquery,1,length(valquery)-1) || ')';
selquery := selquery || valquery;
RETURN selquery;
END
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE;
Invoked thus:
SELECT distinct dv_util.gen_insert_statement('pg_temp_' || sess_id::text,'my_data')
from pg_stat_activity
where procpid = pg_backend_pid()
I haven't tested this against injection attacks, please let me know if the quote_literal call isn't sufficient for that.
Also it only works for columns that can be simply cast to ::text and back again.
Also this is for Greenplum but I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't work on Postgres, CMIIW.

Answer 9

I was in need of a way where I can generate insert statements without creating a temp table (in production). I did see some useful arguments to the the pg_dump above but still ended up devising for a way to
generate the insert statements and dump into a file
The below statement did the trick which I feel will be useful for people who end up here for similar answer.
$ /usr/local/bin/pg_dump -h the_db_host_address -d the_db_name --table=schema_name.table_name --data-only --column-inserts -U postgres -p the_port_number -v -f /Users/the_user/folder_name/insrt_stmts_file_name.sql
The next thing is a prompt which asks the password, in the case above I provided the postgres password but any other user should work fine which has the read capability.
I ran the just the insert statements from the file named:
insrt_stmts_file_name.sql in DBeaver client.
But the same can be run from the command prompt as well using the following script:
/usr/local/bin/psql -h the_db_host_address -d the_db_name -v -U postgres -f /Users/the_user/folder_name/insrt_stmts_file_name.sql
Reference for pg_dump / psql flags:
-h = host
-d = db name
-v = verbose (it'll output as it progresses)
-U = db user name
-f = file / path

Answer 10

Just to add on a simple way but manual method.
1)Using PGADMIN 4, after querying the data, download the data in csv.
open the csv in any notepad and copy and paste the data in an online csv to sql converter. For example: https://www.convertcsv.com/csv-to-sql.htm.
You can set the name of the target table.The output is sql insert scripts.
Copy the INSERT scripts back into PGADMIN4 in the targeted db query window.

Answer 11

have u tried in pgadmin executing query with " EXECUTE QUERY WRITE RESULT TO FILE " option
its only export the data, else try like
pg_dump -t view_name DB_name > db.sql
-t option used for ==> Dump only tables (or views or sequences) matching table, refer