PostgreSQL: export resulting data from SQL query to Excel/CSV

Asked 14/11, 2011 at 9:7 Answered 19/8, 2015 at 17:9

Solved postgresql file-io postgresql-copy

I need to export the resulting data from a query in PostgreSQL to Excel/CSV.
I use PostgreSQL 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"';

Auscultate answered 14/11, 2011 at 9:7 Comment(4)

The name is PostgreSQL or Postgres for short. There is no Postgre. – Radiogram 14/11, 2011 at 9:28

You 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 – Radiogram 14/11, 2011 at 12:27

i tried giving >TO 'C:\\auto_new.txt' but the same error – Auscultate 14/11, 2011 at 12:28

There is also a space missing before TO. Not sure whether PostgreSQL 8.2 cares. It would still work in 9.0. – Radiogram 14/11, 2011 at 12:52

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:

Copy results from a PostgreSQL view in one DB to a table in another

Similar solution for MySQL:

Exporting MYSQL data into Excel/CSV via php

Radiogram answered 14/11, 2011 at 9:11 Comment(19)

COPY (SELECT * FROM tbl) TO 'C:/Documents and Settings/Tech/Desktop/myfile1.csv'; SQL error: ERROR: relative path not allowed for COPY to file – Auscultate 14/11, 2011 at 9:15

@soul: I suspect the whitespace in your filename. See my amended answer. – Radiogram 14/11, 2011 at 9:37

@soul: ah .. Windows needs backslashes. See amended answer. (I use Debian.) – Radiogram 14/11, 2011 at 10:27

will try pgadmin and let u know @ErwinBrandstetter – Auscultate 14/11, 2011 at 10:29

not able to copy in windows? what might be the issue with the query – Auscultate 14/11, 2011 at 12:5

@soul: Please amend your question with the exact SQL statement you use and the error message you get. – Radiogram 14/11, 2011 at 12:7

Do you have write permission in the c: root directory ? – Stockbroker 14/11, 2011 at 12:19

Yup i got the administrator privileges .. so i got the permission – Auscultate 14/11, 2011 at 12:21

@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! – Radiogram 14/11, 2011 at 12:30

SQL error: ERROR: relative path not allowed for COPY to file In statement: COPY (select distinct(m_ – Auscultate 14/11, 2011 at 12:42

@soul i am facing the same problem , got any fix ? :) – Augustaugusta 4/1, 2012 at 5:35

@Augustaugusta : nope just directly downloaded using the export button – Auscultate 4/1, 2012 at 6:12

@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. – Radiogram 4/1, 2012 at 11:5

@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 :( – Augustaugusta 5/1, 2012 at 7:21

There 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]) \ ) – Jessiajessica 21/3, 2013 at 0:23

How to use \copy command? to query the data and save in csv file? – Marzi 5/8, 2014 at 2:50

@AKIWEB: Follow my link above and read the manual. If something is still unclear, ask a question. Comments are not the place. – Radiogram 5/8, 2014 at 3:30

@ErwinBrandstetter I got the same error as ghostman on Windows and I have no whitespace and use backslashes – Marketable 12/9, 2016 at 1:38

@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! – Wattenberg 14/9, 2016 at 11:48

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.

Salina answered 19/8, 2015 at 17:9 Comment(0)

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.

Wheedle answered 16/1, 2013 at 16:6 Comment(1)

What version of PostgreSQL? – Jessiajessica 21/3, 2013 at 0:25

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

Menace answered 14/11, 2011 at 13:20 Comment(0)

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.

Usance answered 4/9, 2014 at 8:20 Comment(1)

Or you can copy to /tmp. Worked for me. – Antisyphilitic 5/5, 2015 at 6:2

The correct script for postgres (Ubuntu) is:

COPY (SELECT * FROM tbl) TO '/var/lib/postgres/myfile1.csv';

Usance answered 4/9, 2014 at 8:17 Comment(3)

psql -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. – Usance 25/10, 2016 at 16:9

I want to put quote around my string values. how can i? @Usance – Pongee 26/10, 2016 at 6:40

You can try ' ' or "\"" – Usance 26/10, 2016 at 7:58

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