When we were importing data, we used the psql \COPY FROM
command to copy data from a file to a table. This time, we'll do it the other way round - from a table to a file - using the \COPY TO
command.
\COPY TO
can not only copy a full table, but also the results of a SELECT
query, and that means we can actually output filtered sub datasets of the source tables.
Similarly to the method we used to import, we can execute \COPY
or COPY
in different scenarios: We'll use psql in interactive and non-interactive mode, and we'll also do the very same thing in PgAdmin.
Note
It is worth remembering that COPY
can only read/write files that can be accessed by an instance of the server, usually files that reside on the same machine as the database server.
For detailed information on \COPY
syntax and parameters, type:
\h copy