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https://github.com/fphilipe/psql2csv

Run a query in psql and output the result as CSV.
https://github.com/fphilipe/psql2csv

cli csv homebrew homebrew-formula postgres postgresql psql

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Run a query in psql and output the result as CSV.

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# psql2csv

**Run a query in psql and output the result as CSV.**

## Installation

### Mac OS X

psql2csv is available on [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).

$ brew install psql2csv

### Manual

Grab the file `psql2csv`, put in somewhere in your `$PATH`, and make it
executable:

$ curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fphilipe/psql2csv/master/psql2csv > /usr/local/bin/psql2csv && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/psql2csv

## Usage

psql2csv [OPTIONS] < QUERY
psql2csv [OPTIONS] QUERY

## Options

The query is assumed to be the contents of STDIN, if present, or the last
argument. All other arguments are forwarded to psql except for these:

-?, --help show this help, then exit
--delimiter=DELIMITER set the field delimiter (default: ,)
--quote=QUOTE set the quote delimiter (default: ")
--escape=ESCAPE set the escape character (default: QUOTE)
--null=NULL set the string representing NULL; printed without quotes (default: empty string)
--force-quote=FORCE_QUOTE set the columns to be force quoted; comma separated list of columns or * for all (default: none)
--encoding=ENCODING set the output encoding; Excel likes latin1 (default: UTF8)
--no-header do not output a header
--timezone=TIMEZONE set the timezone config before running the query
--search-path=SEARCH_PATH set the search_path config before running the query
--dry-run print the COPY statement that would be run without actually running it

## Example Usage

$ psql2csv dbname "select * from table" > data.csv

$ psql2csv dbname < query.sql > data.csv

$ psql2csv --no-header --delimiter=$'\t' --encoding=latin1 dbname < SELECT *
> FROM some_table
> WHERE some_condition
> LIMIT 10
> sql

## Advanced Usage

Let's assume you have a script `monthly_report.sql` that you run every month.
This script has a `WHERE` that limits the report to a certain month:

WHERE date_trunc('month', created_at) = '2019-01-01'

Every time you run it you have to edit the script to change the month you want
to run it for. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to specify a variable instead?

Turns out psql does have support for [variables] which you can pass to psql (and
thus to psql2csv) via `-v`, `--variable`, or `--set`. To interpolate the
variable into the query you can use `:VAR` for the literal value, `:'VAR'` for
the value as a string, or `:"VAR"` for the value as an identifier.

Let's change the `WHERE` clause in `monthly_report.sql` file to use a variable
instead:

WHERE date_trunc('month', created_at) = (:'MONTH' || '-01')::timestamptz

With this change we can now run the query for any desired month as follows:

$ psql2csv -v MONTH=2019-02 < monthly_report.sql > data.csv

[variables]: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/app-psql.html#APP-PSQL-VARIABLES

## Further Help

- [PostgreSQL COPY documentation](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql-copy.html)
- [psql variables](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/app-psql.html#APP-PSQL-VARIABLES)

## Author

Philipe Fatio ([@fphilipe](https://github.com/fphilipe))