Question

How to insert a text file into a field in PostgreSQL?

I’d like to insert a row with fields from a local or remote text file.

I’d expect a function like gettext() or geturl() in order to do the following:

% INSERT INTO collection(id, path, content) VALUES(1, ‘/etc/motd’, gettext(‘/etc/motd’));

-S.

Answer 1

Thanks for the tips. I’ve found another answer with a built in function.
You need to have super user rights in order to execute that!

-- 1. Create a function to load a doc
-- DROP FUNCTION get_text_document(CHARACTER VARYING);
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_text_document(p_filename CHARACTER VARYING)
  RETURNS TEXT AS $$
  -- Set the end read to some big number because we are too lazy to grab the length
  -- and it will cut of at the EOF anyway
  SELECT CAST(pg_read_file(E'mydocuments/' || $1 ,0, 100000000) AS TEXT);
$$ LANGUAGE sql VOLATILE SECURITY DEFINER;
ALTER FUNCTION get_text_document(CHARACTER VARYING) OWNER TO postgres;

-- 2. Determine the location of your cluster by running as super user:
SELECT name, setting FROM pg_settings WHERE name='data_directory'; 

-- 3. Copy the files you want to import into <data_directory>/mydocuments/
--    and test it: 
SELECT get_text_document('file1.txt');

-- 4. Now do the import (HINT: File must be UTF-8) 
INSERT INTO mytable(file, content)
  VALUES ('file1.txt', get_text_document('file1.txt'));