"Simon Riggs" <simon@2ndquadrant.com> writes:
> Feedback from someone else looking to the problem last year. IIRC there
> was a feeling that if we didn't have to search for delimiters the COPY
> FROM input parsing could be easier.

Of what use is the above comment? You have to parse the input into
fields somehow.

"It can be arbitrarily fast ... if it doesn't have to get the right answer."

regards, tom lane

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On Fri, 2007-03-02 at 13:24 -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> "Simon Riggs" <simon@2ndquadrant.com> writes:
> > Feedback from someone else looking to the problem last year. IIRC there
> > was a feeling that if we didn't have to search for delimiters the COPY
> > FROM input parsing could be easier.
>
> Of what use is the above comment?

To me, none. Andrew asked me why I was vague - I explained.

If I'd written it on IRC it would be wisdom, on email not at all.

--
Simon Riggs
EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com



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"Tom Lane" <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> writes:

> "Simon Riggs" <simon@2ndquadrant.com> writes:
>> Feedback from someone else looking to the problem last year. IIRC there
>> was a feeling that if we didn't have to search for delimiters the COPY
>> FROM input parsing could be easier.
>
> Of what use is the above comment? You have to parse the input into
> fields somehow.

Well those two requirements aren't inconsistent if you're using fixed-width
input text files. Not that I'm enamoured of such file formats, just saying.

The only file formats I ever wanted when I was doing this kind of stuff is tab
separated, all the others (comma separated and (egads) *pipe* separated?!) are
just disasters.

--
Gregory Stark
EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com

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Gregory Stark <stark@enterprisedb.com> writes:
> "Tom Lane" <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> writes:
>> Of what use is the above comment? You have to parse the input into
>> fields somehow.

> Well those two requirements aren't inconsistent if you're using fixed-width
> input text files. Not that I'm enamoured of such file formats, just saying.

[ shrug... ] And of course, shoving a large quantity of padding spaces
through the software has zero cost.

regards, tom lane

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Gregory Stark wrote:
>
>
> The only file formats I ever wanted when I was doing this kind of stuff is tab
> separated, all the others (comma separated and (egads) *pipe* separated?!) are
> just disasters.
>
>



Others of us have to operate in a world where we don't get to choose the
format of data we receive. Having Postgres work with common data
interchange formats is a Good Thing (tm).

(I also have my own opinion of the disutility of tab as a separator.)

cheers

andrew

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