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Overview

A delimiter is a character that separates text strings. Common delimiters include:

  • Commas (,)
  • Semicolon (;)
  • Quotes ( ”, ’ )
  • Dash (-)
  • Pipes (|)
  • Slashes ( / \ ).

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Syntax

The syntax for COPY TO with a delimiter is as follows:

COPY table_name TO 'file_path' (DELIMITER 'delimiter');

Parameters in the syntax include:

  • table_name: The table containing the data to be exported.
  • file_path: The CSV file location where the data will be saved.
  • DELIMITER ‘delimiter': The Delimiter used in the exported CSV file.
Default delimiter is a comma (,).

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Example

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Step #1: Create a Table

  1. Before creating a table, check for duplicate tables using the following statement:
DESCRIBE DATABASE
  1. You will receive a list of existing tables in Oxla:
 namespace_name |      name      
----------------+----------------
 public         | client
 public         | distance_table
 public         | weight
 public         | product
 public         | salary
Ensure you are not creating duplicate tables.
  1. Create a “customer” table.
CREATE TABLE customer (
  cust_id int,
  cust_name text
);
INSERT INTO customer 
    (cust_id, cust_name) 
VALUES 
    (11001, 'Maya'),
    (11003, 'Ricky'),
    (11009, 'Sean'),
    (11008, 'Chris'),
    (11002, 'Emily'),
    (11005, 'Rue'),
    (11007, 'Tom'),
    (11006, 'Casey');
  1. The table and data were created successfully.
COMPLETE
INSERT 0 8

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Step #2: Export Data to a CSV File using Delimiter

Important Notes:
- By default, the COPY TO command overwrites the CSV file if it already exists.
- Please ensure that the directory where you save the file has a write permissions.

In the example below, we are using a Comma ( , ).

COPY salary TO '/home/acer/Documents/customerexport.csv' (DELIMITER ',');

You will get the successful output below.

--
(0 rows)

Using the comma ( , ) as the delimiter for the customer table, the expected output would be:

cust_id,cust_name
11001,Maya
11003,Ricky
11009,Sean
11008,Chris
11002,Emily
11005,Rue
11007,Tom
11006,Casey