Horton

Re: csv format for psql

Peter Eisentraut <peter.eisentraut@2ndquadrant.com>

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From: Peter Eisentraut <peter.eisentraut@2ndquadrant.com>
To: Pavel Stehule <pavel.stehule@gmail.com>, Fabien COELHO <coelho@cri.ensmp.fr>
Cc: Isaac Morland <isaac.morland@gmail.com>, Daniel Verite <daniel@manitou-mail.org>, "David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com>, David Steele <david@pgmasters.net>, PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Date: 2018-04-06T03:08:34Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers 
On 4/1/18 03:27, Pavel Stehule wrote:
> I don't share option so CSV format should be exactly same like CSV COPY.
> COPY is designed for backups - and header is not too important there.
> When I seen some csv, then there usually header was used.

I think in practice a lot of people use COPY also because it's a nice
way to get CSV output, even if it's not for backups.  The options that
COPY has for CSV are clearly designed around making the output
compatible with various CSV-variants.  If we create another way to do
CSV in psql, it would be totally confusing if some of the options are
the same and some are different or missing.

Another thought: Isn't CSV just the same as unaligned output plus some
quoting?  Could we add a quote character setting and then define --csv
to be quote-character = " and fieldsep = , ?

-- 
Peter Eisentraut              http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services

Commits

  1. Add CSV table output mode in psql.

  2. Reorganize format options of psql in alphabetical order

  3. Complete TODO item: