PostgreSQL: export resulting data from SQL query to Excel/CSV
Solution 1
Example with Unix-style file name:
COPY (SELECT * FROM tbl) TO '/var/lib/postgres/myfile1.csv' format csv;
Read the manual about COPY
(link to version 8.2).
You have to use an absolute path for the target file. Be sure to double quote file names with spaces. Example for MS Windows:
COPY (SELECT * FROM tbl)
TO E'"C:\\Documents and Settings\\Tech\Desktop\\myfile1.csv"' format csv;
In PostgreSQL 8.2, with standard_conforming_strings = off
per default, you need to double backslashes, because \
is a special character and interpreted by PostgreSQL. Works in any version. It's all in the fine manual:
filename
The absolute path name of the input or output file. Windows users might need to use an
E''
string and double backslashes used as path separators.
Or the modern syntax with standard_conforming_strings = on
(default since Postgres 9.1):
COPY tbl -- short for (SELECT * FROM tbl)
TO '"C:\Documents and Settings\Tech\Desktop\myfile1.csv"' (format csv);
Or you can also use forward slashes for filenames under Windows.
An alternative is to use the meta-command \copy
of the default terminal client psql
.
You can also use a GUI like pgadmin and copy / paste from the result grid to Excel for small queries.
Closely related answer:
Similar solution for MySQL:
Solution 2
In PostgreSQL 9.4 to create to file CSV with the header in Ubuntu:
COPY (SELECT * FROM tbl) TO '/home/user/Desktop/result_sql.csv' WITH CSV HEADER;
Note: The folder must be writable.
Solution 3
This worked for me:
COPY (SELECT * FROM table)
TO E'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\PostgreSQL\\8.4\\data\\try.csv';
In my case the problem was with the writing permission to a special folder (though I work as administrator), after changing the path to the original data folder under PostgreSQL I had success.
Solution 4
Several GUI tools like Squirrel, SQL Workbench/J, AnySQL, ExecuteQuery can export to Excel files.
Most of those tools are listed in the PostgreSQL wiki:
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Community_Guide_to_PostgreSQL_GUI_Tools
Solution 5
If you have error like "ERROR: could not open server file "/file": Permission denied" you can fix it that:
Ran through the same problem, and this is the solution I found: Create a new folder (for instance, tmp) under /home $ cd /home make postgres the owner of that folder $ chown -R postgres:postgres tmp copy in tmp the files you want to write into the database, and make sure they also are owned by postgres. That's it. You should be in business after that.
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Comments
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Ghostman about 4 years
I need to export the resulting data from a query in PostgreSQL to Excel/CSV.
I usePostgreSQL 8.2.11
.SQL error: ERROR: relative path not allowed for COPY to file In statement: COPY (select distinct(m_price) from m_product)TO '"c:\auto_new.txt"';
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Erwin Brandstetter over 12 yearsThe name is
PostgreSQL
orPostgres
for short. There is noPostgre
. -
Erwin Brandstetter over 12 yearsYou only need to double-quote the filename if it includes whitespace or special characters. Not necessary for
'C:\\auto_new.txt'
. (Not wrong, though.). There is -
Ghostman over 12 yearsi tried giving >TO 'C:\\auto_new.txt' but the same error
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Erwin Brandstetter over 12 yearsThere is also a space missing before
TO
. Not sure whether PostgreSQL 8.2 cares. It would still work in 9.0.
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Ghostman over 12 yearsCOPY (SELECT * FROM tbl) TO 'C:/Documents and Settings/Tech/Desktop/myfile1.csv'; SQL error: ERROR: relative path not allowed for COPY to file
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Erwin Brandstetter over 12 years@soul: I suspect the whitespace in your filename. See my amended answer.
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Erwin Brandstetter over 12 years@soul: ah .. Windows needs backslashes. See amended answer. (I use Debian.)
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Ghostman over 12 yearswill try pgadmin and let u know @ErwinBrandstetter
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Ghostman over 12 yearsnot able to copy in windows? what might be the issue with the query
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Erwin Brandstetter over 12 years@soul: Please amend your question with the exact SQL statement you use and the error message you get.
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wildplasser over 12 yearsDo you have write permission in the c: root directory ?
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Ghostman over 12 yearsYup i got the administrator privileges .. so i got the permission
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Erwin Brandstetter over 12 years@soul: With the switch to Windows and it's backslashes, we have triggered another effect: `\` is a special character an needs to be escaped. (Just like I had to in this comment.) See my amended answer!
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Ghostman over 12 yearsSQL error: ERROR: relative path not allowed for COPY to file In statement: COPY (select distinct(m_
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sanre6 over 12 years@soul i am facing the same problem , got any fix ? :)
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Ghostman over 12 years@sanre6 : nope just directly downloaded using the export button
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Erwin Brandstetter over 12 years@sanre6: Always remember that
COPY
handles files local to the server. If your client is on a different machine, use the meta-command\copy
of the psql client or some other tool like pgAdmin. -
sanre6 over 12 years@ErwinBrandstetter , hey i did not know that . But , still doesn't work even with \copy using pgadmin version 8.4. same error as mentioned in the post :(
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Tim Child about 11 yearsThere is a horrible bug is Windows PostgreSQL the test for an absolute path the code just looks for a '/' see port.h #define is_absolute_path ( filename ) #define IS_DIR_SEP ( ch ) ((ch) == '/') Value: ( \ IS_DIR_SEP((filename)[0]) \ )
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Tim Child about 11 yearsWhat version of PostgreSQL?
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AKIWEB over 9 yearsHow to use \copy command? to query the data and save in csv file?
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Erwin Brandstetter over 9 years@AKIWEB: Follow my link above and read the manual. If something is still unclear, ask a question. Comments are not the place.
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dimuthu about 9 yearsOr you can copy to /tmp. Worked for me.
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Hack-R over 7 years@ErwinBrandstetter I got the same error as ghostman on Windows and I have no whitespace and use backslashes
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Arunraj over 7 years@ErwinBrandstetter I can export a query result into CSV file using the COPY command , but one of the column data is a JSON data so when I open it in libreoffice it is split into different cells(since it had comma), any idea how to export the json data as is. Thanks in advance!
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Michael over 7 yearspsql -c "COPY (SELECT * FROM tbl) TO '/var/lib/postgres/myfile1.csv';" don't forget to add db, user and password if require. -c flag give you option to run command from ubuntu(linux) terminal.
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Melih over 7 yearsI want to put quote around my string values. how can i? @Michael
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Michael over 7 yearsYou can try ' ' or "\""