postgresql - Export Postgres Database into CSV file

Question

I want to export a Postgres database into a CSV file. Is this possible?

If it is possible, then how can I do this? I have seen that we can convert a particular table into a CSV file but I don't know about a whole database.

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17463299/export-postgres-database-into-csv-file

Answer 1

I made this pl/pgsql function to create one .csv file per table (excluding views, thanks to @tarikki):

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION db_to_csv(path TEXT) RETURNS void AS $$
declare
   tables RECORD;
   statement TEXT;
begin
FOR tables IN 
   SELECT (table_schema || '.' || table_name) AS schema_table
   FROM information_schema.tables t INNER JOIN information_schema.schemata s 
   ON s.schema_name = t.table_schema 
   WHERE t.table_schema NOT IN ('pg_catalog', 'information_schema')
   AND t.table_type NOT IN ('VIEW')
   ORDER BY schema_table
LOOP
   statement := 'COPY ' || tables.schema_table || ' TO ''' || path || '/' || tables.schema_table || '.csv' ||''' DELIMITER '';'' CSV HEADER';
   EXECUTE statement;
END LOOP;
return;  
end;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

And I use it this way:

SELECT db_to_csv('/home/user/dir');
-- this will create one csv file per table, in /home/user/dir/