Thread

  1. A very novice question about ascii files

    Leslie Johnson - Contractor <ljohnson@arl.army.mil> — 2000-09-08T19:54:02Z

    Hi all,
    This is probably a very stupid question but I'm working on a really tight
    deadline and I'm very confused.  I've got several incredibly hefty ascii
    files that were at one point Oracle databases.  Now they're just plain
    ascii dump files and today I got asked to put them in PGSQL but I have no
    idea how (I've never even worked with databases before except for the
    offline variety.)  Can anybody please point me towards some documentation
    that would be helpful or give me some advice?
    Thanks so much,
    Leslie
    
    
    
  2. Re: A very novice question about ascii files

    ghaverla@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca — 2000-09-08T19:58:49Z

    On Fri, 8 Sep 2000, Leslie Johnson - Contractor wrote:
    
    > Hi all,
    > This is probably a very stupid question but I'm working on a really tight
    > deadline and I'm very confused.
    
    It's isn't quite verbose enough for me to give but a
    start on an answer.  Someone else may have more knowledge.
    
    >                             I've got several incredibly hefty ascii
    > files that were at one point Oracle databases.  Now they're just plain
    > ascii dump files and today I got asked to put them in PGSQL but I have no
    > idea how (I've never even worked with databases before except for the
    > offline variety.)  Can anybody please point me towards some documentation
    > that would be helpful or give me some advice?
    
    I guess you've looked a little at these files.  Do they
    look like fixed format or delimited files?  I.e., is the first
    field always columns 1-N, the second, N+1 to M, ...
    
    Good luck,
    Gord
    
    Matter Realisations     http://www.materialisations.com/
    Gordon Haverland, B.Sc. M.Eng. President
    101  9504 182 St. NW    Edmonton, AB, CA  T5T 3A7
    780/481-8019            ghaverla @ freenet.edmonton.ab.ca
    
    
    
  3. Re: A very novice question about ascii files

    Thomas Good <tomg@q8.nrnet.org> — 2000-09-08T20:40:59Z

    On Fri, 8 Sep 2000, Leslie Johnson - Contractor wrote:
    
    > Hi all,
    > This is probably a very stupid question but I'm working on a really tight
    > deadline and I'm very confused.  I've got several incredibly hefty ascii
    > files that were at one point Oracle databases.  Now they're just plain
    > ascii dump files and today I got asked to put them in PGSQL but I have no
    > idea how (I've never even worked with databases before except for the
    > offline variety.)  Can anybody please point me towards some documentation
    > that would be helpful or give me some advice?
    > Thanks so much,
    > Leslie
    
    Leslie,
    
    I had to load quite a few flat files dumped from a PROGRESS database.
    They contained lots of errors (PROGRESS is so sloppy it allowed the
    user to enter control characters into varchar() fields!)
    
    Anyhoo, it was no picnic but I have some shell scripts that ask sed
    to fix a few things so they are more to PG's liking.  If you like
    send a sample of the data to the list and I'll have a go...
    It doesn't matter if you send fake data (working in psychiatry I'm
    familiar with confidentiality issues) as long as it's representative 
    of the problem in front of you.  If I can help I'll send you back
    a shell script...
    
    With luck your data is tab delimited.  ;-)
    Mine was but had embedded tabs!  He he...sed prevailed nonetheless.
    
    Cheers,
    Tom 
    
    --------------------------------------------------------------------
                   SVCMC - Center for Behavioral Health                  
    --------------------------------------------------------------------
    Thomas Good                          tomg@ { admin | q8 } .nrnet.org
    IS Coordinator / DBA                 Phone: 718-354-5528 
                                         Fax:   718-354-5056  
    --------------------------------------------------------------------
    Powered by:  PostgreSQL     s l a c k w a r e          FreeBSD:
                   RDBMS       |---------- linux      The Power To Serve
    --------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    
    
  4. Re: A very novice question about ascii files

    Paul Skinner <skin@skin.dhs.org> — 2000-09-08T22:56:34Z

    If you have access to an Oracle box, you can try reloading using SQL Loader,
    then any number of tools can be used to move the data from one environment
    to another.  I once moved  Oracle 8i database to Postgres 7.0.2 via the
    MS-SQL 7 Enterprise manager. All you're usually left with is making a script
    to enable any constraints.  Nothing imports better than the system that
    generated the dump... You can download (super slow) Oracle from their site.
    The Linux version is a pain if you don't  RTFM , but if you're short on time
    then try  the brain-dead installer for the NT version.
    
    If you don't want to get into a data massage nightmare ( they aren't that
    bad after the first few if it boils down to that !) , try to get the data
    back into it's native format and export it to something more meaningful to
    the system you're trying to import to.
    
    
    P
    
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Leslie Johnson - Contractor" <ljohnson@arl.army.mil>
    To: <pgsql-novice@postgresql.org>
    Sent: Friday, September 08, 2000 3:54 PM
    Subject: [NOVICE] A very novice question about ascii files
    
    
    > Hi all,
    > This is probably a very stupid question but I'm working on a really tight
    > deadline and I'm very confused.  I've got several incredibly hefty ascii
    > files that were at one point Oracle databases.  Now they're just plain
    > ascii dump files and today I got asked to put them in PGSQL but I have no
    > idea how (I've never even worked with databases before except for the
    > offline variety.)  Can anybody please point me towards some documentation
    > that would be helpful or give me some advice?
    > Thanks so much,
    > Leslie