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Running SQL script through psql gives syntax errors that don't occur in PgAdmin
(4 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
I have a .sql file that has several commands in it like this:
alter table mytable add codecolumn varchar(10);
update mytable set codecolumn = 'code';
alter table mytable set anothercolumn = 'anothervalue';
This is a PostgreSQL database and I'm trying to use psql to execute the file like so:
psql -h hostname -d dbname -w -f "C:\filepath\filename.sql"
The problem I'm noticing is that it's not executing the commands in the same order as it would if I opened up a query window and ran it that way - from top to bottom. I know this because it's saying that codecolumn doesn't exist.
My goal is to turn this into a batch file to run periodically without having to open up the database. Is there a better way to run this or tell it to run the commands in order?
specs: PostgreSQL 9.5.1, Windows 10 64 bit
UPDATE:
I noticed this strange character is being added to the beginning of the first statement:
LINE 1: alter table "mytable" add codecolumn varchar (10);
I believe it's skipping this initial statement as a result.
I found a workaround to this here:
https://www.postgresql-archive.org/Using-psql-f-to-load-a-UTF8-file-td5724735.html
The solution was to add an additional line to the file with a semicolon so that the encoding error get tripped up on that.
Related
I have multiple tables that are created in the same way (same columns, indexes, etc.)
I would like to have one sql file for creating them all without duplicating the create statements.
Is there a way to use some kind of placeholder in sql file which would be substituted when executing the sql file with a parameter?
For example I would like to have below sql statement:
drop table if exists schema.%PLACEHOLDER%;
create table schema.%PLACEHOLDER%(id text, data text);
And execute such script with:
psql -f mysqlfile.sql -magic_parameter my_desired_table_name
Is this possible when executing PostgreSQL sql files, or maybe other way to achieve the same (except using sed)?
Sincr you are using psql, you can use variables as follows:
drop table if exists schema.:placeholder;
The invocation is:
psql -f mysqlfile.sql -v placeholder=table_name
I added a file to postgres using \i /path/to/some/file.sql but there was a typo in the file.
Here's what I had in the file:
CREATE VIEW holidays AS
SELECT event_id AS holiday_id, title AS name, starts AS date
FROM events
WHERE title LIKE '%Day%' AND venue_id IS NULL;
In the original version I had %DAY%. When running \i /path/to/some/file.sql again, I receive this error:
ERROR: relation "holidays" already exists
How do I undo this relation to get the code to run again?
Thanks
The \i command does not "add a file" that can later be removed. It simply runs the SQL within the file, as if you had typed it at the psql command prompt. If you want to undo what you did, it will depend on what exactly the SQL was.
mohpc04pp1: /h/u544835 % psql arco
Welcome to psql 8.1.17, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal.
Type: \copyright for distribution terms
\h for help with SQL commands
\? for help with psql commands
\g or terminate with semicolon to execute query
\q to quit
WARNING: You are connected to a server with major version 8.3,
but your psql client is major version 8.2. Some backslash commands,
such as \d, might not work properly.
dbname=> \o /h/u544835/data25000.csv
dbname=> select url from urltable where scoreid=1 limit 25000;
dbname=> \q
This is took from a link online of basically what I have been doing, but what I need to do is make a script that I can use to produce csv files daily
So my aim of the script is to while in the script connect to the db, run the \o etc commands then close it
but I'm having trouble scripting it to say go into the psql arco database then run those queries.
command line to connect to db = psql arco then once the scrits recognised I'm in that databse perform those commands to automate a query to a csv file.
if anyone can get me started or point me towards reading material for me to get past that bit, it will be duely appreciated.
i'm running all this off a standard windows xp, ssh'ing to a SLES set-up web server that holds my postgresql database running psql version 8.1.17
First of all you should fix your setup. As it turns out, we are dealing with PostgreSQL 8.1 here. This version has reached end of live in 2010. You need to seriously think about upgrading - or at least remind the guys running the server. Current version is 9.1.
The command you are looking for:
psql arco -c "\copy (select url from urltable where scoreid=1 limit 25000) to '/h/u544835/data25000.csv'"
Assuming your db is named "arco". Adjusted for changed question (including changed port).
I now see version 8.1 popping up in your question, but it's all contradictory. You need Postgres 8.2 or later to use a query (instead of a table) with the \copy meta-command.
Details about psql in the fine manual.
Alternative approach that should work with obsolete PostgreSQL 8.1:
psql arco -o /h/u544835/data25000.csv -t -A -c 'SELECT url FROM urltable WHERE scoreid = 1 LIMIT 25000'
Find some more info about these command line options under this related question on dba.SE.
With function (syntax compatible with 8.1)
Another way would be to create a server side function (if you can!) that executes COPY from a temp table (old syntax - works with pg 8.1):
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION f_copy_file()
RETURNS void AS
$BODY$
BEGIN
CREATE TEMP TABLE u_tmp AS (
SELECT url FROM urltable WHERE scoreid = 1 LIMIT 25000
);
COPY u_tmp TO '/h/u544835/data25000.csv';
DROP TABLE u_tmp;
END;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;
And then from the shell:
psql arco -c 'SELECT f_copy_file()'
Change the separator
\f sets the field separator. I quote the manual again:
-F separator
--field-separator=separator
Use separator as the field separator for unaligned output.
This is equivalent to \pset fieldsep or \f.
Or you can change the column separator in Excel, here are the instructions from MS.
Thanks to Erwin's help and a link I read up on he posted for me I managed to combine the two to get
#!/bin/sh
dbname='arco'
username='' # If you actually supply a username, you need to add the -U switch!
psql $dbname $username << EOF
\f ,
\o /h/u544835/showme.csv
SELECT * FROM storage;
EOF
which will write my queries to a csv file etc for me.
From what there is above, it is not separating the sql query so if I load it straight into excel, they all stay in the same column too which means I'm having a problem with the delimiter
I've tried tabbed delimiters, also tried , ; etc but none are letting me separate it
I need for it
is there an option I can click to see which delimiter is being used with my psql? or a different way of dumping the data from a query into a file that can be read by excel, so a different column for each row etc
I am not a programmer, I am struggling a bit with this.
I have a batch file connecting to my PostgreSQL server, and then open a sql script. Everything works as expected. My question is how to pass a variable (if possible) from one to the other.
Here is my batch file:
set PGPASSWORD=xxxx
cls
#echo off
C:\Progra~1\PostgreSQL\8.3\bin\psql -d Total -h localhost -p 5432 -U postgres -f C:\TotalProteinImport.sql
And here's the script:
copy totalprotein from 'c:/TP.csv' DELIMITERS ',' CSV HEADER;
update anagrafica
set pt=(select totalprotein.resultvalue from totalprotein where totalprotein.accessionnbr=anagrafica.id)
where data_analisi = '12/23/2011';
delete from totalprotein;
This is working great, now the question is how could I pass a variable that would carry the date for data_analisi?
Like in the batch file, "Please enter date", and then the value is passed to the sql script.
You could create a function out of your your SQL script like this:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION f_myfunc(date)
RETURNS void AS
$BODY$
CREATE TEMP TABLE t_tmp ON COMMIT DROP AS
SELECT * FROM totalprotein LIMIT 0; -- copy table-structure from table
COPY t_tmp FROM 'c:/TP.csv' DELIMITERS ',' CSV HEADER;
UPDATE anagrafica a
SET pt = t.resultvalue
FROM t_tmp t
WHERE a.data_analisi = $1
AND t.accessionnbr = a.id;
-- Temp table is dropped automatically at end of session
-- In this case (ON COMMIT DROP) after the transaction
$BODY$
LANGUAGE sql;
You can use language SQL for this kind of simple SQL batch.
As you can see I have made a couple of modifications to your script that should make it faster, cleaner and safer.
Major points
For reading data into an empty table temporarily, use a temporary table. Saves a lot of disc writes and is much faster.
To simplify the process I use your existing table totalprotein as template for the creation of the (empty) temp table.
If you want to delete all rows of a table use TRUNCATE instead of DELETE FROM. Much faster. In this particular case, you need neither. The temporary table is dropped automatically. See comments in function.
The way you updated anagrafica.pt you would set the column to NULL, if anything goes wrong in the process (date not found, wrong date, id not found ...). The way I rewrote the UPDATE, it only happens if matching data are found. I assume that is what you actually want.
Then ask for user input in your shell script and call the function with the date as parameter. That's how it could work in a Linux shell (as user postgres, with password-less access (using IDENT method in pg_haba.conf):
#! /bin/sh
# Ask for date. 'YYYY-MM-DD' = ISO date-format, valid with any postgres locale.
echo -n "Enter date in the form YYYY-MM-DD and press [ENTER]: "
read date
# check validity of $date ...
psql db -p5432 -c "SELECT f_myfunc('$date')"
-c makes psql execute a singe SQL command and then exits. I wrote a lot more on psql and its command line options yesterday in a somewhat related answer.
The creation of the according Windows batch file remains as exercise for you.
Call under Windows
The error message tells you:
Function tpimport(unknown) does not exist
Note the lower case letters: tpimport. I suspect you used mixe case letters to create the function. So now you have to enclose the function name in double quotes every time you use it.
Try this one (edited quotes!):
C:\Progra~1\PostgreSQL\8.3\bin\psql -d Total -h localhost -p 5432 -U postgres
-c "SELECT ""TPImport""('%dateimport%')"
Note how I use singe and double quotes here. I guess this could work under windows. See here.
You made it hard for yourself when you chose to use mixed case identifiers in PostgreSQL - a folly which I never tire of warning against. Now you have to double quote the function name "TPImport" every time you use it. While perfectly legit, I would never do that. I use lower case letters for identifiers. Always. This way I never mix up lower / upper case and I never have to use double quotes.
The ultimate fix would be to recreate the function with a lower case name (just leave away the double quotes and it will be folded to lower case automatically). Then the function name will just work without any quoting.
Read the basics about identifiers here.
Also, consider upgrading to a more recent version of PostgreSQL 8.3 is a bit rusty by now.
psql supports textual replacement variables. Within psql they can be set using \set and used using :varname.
\set xyz 'abcdef'
select :'xyz';
?column?
----------
abcdef
These variables can be set using command line arguments also:
psql -v xyz=value
The only problem is that these textual replacements always need some fiddling with quoting as shown by the first \set and select.
After creating the function in Postgres, you must create a .bat file in the bin directory of your Postgres version, for example C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.3\bin. Here you write:
#echo off
cd C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.3\bin
psql -p 5432 -h localhost -d myDataBase -U postgres -c "select * from myFunction()"
I have the following script to create a table:
-- Create State table.
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS "State" CASCADE;
CREATE TABLE "State" (
StateID SERIAL PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
StateName VARCHAR(50)
);
It runs fine in the query tool of PgAdmin. But when I try to run it from the command line using psql:
psql -U postgres -d dbname -f 00101-CreateStateTable.sql
I get a syntax error as shown below.
2: ERROR: syntax error at or near ""
LINE 1:
^
psql:00101-CreateStateTable.sql:6: NOTICE: CREATE TABLE will create implicit sequence "State_stateid_seq" for serial column "State.stateid"
psql:00101-CreateStateTable.sql:6: NOTICE: CREATE TABLE / PRIMARY KEY will create implicit index "State_pkey" for table "State"
CREATE TABLE
Why do I get a syntax error using psql and not with pgAdmin?
Run your file 00101-CreateStateTable.sql through a hex dumper. I'll bet you have a UTF-16 marker at the beginning of the file (before the "--" comment characters).
To remove BOM sequence on Ubuntu you can use bomstrip, bomstrip-files
What version(-s) do you use? IF EXISTS came with version 8.2, maybe you're connection with version 8.1 or older when you use psql.
Thank you guys. I have been struggling with this issue for a few weeks. I could not run my SQL scripts using PSQL. I thought I have some issues with my OS, now I know it is the BOM issue in my text file. I installed bomstrip packet in Ubuntu and now all my SQL scripts are working again.