Question

I just started to upload CSV files and creating tables in the database of the company I work for. Would anyone be so kind to explain the proper steps to ensure the copy was complete and there are no mistakes?

My boss told me a few steps of how they do things:

CREATE TABLE -> COPY
or
INSERT DATA -> CREATE INDEX/CONSTRAINTS (if necessary) -> TABLE ANALYSIS

The table analysis part is the confusing part for me. They told me to analyze the table, then check for errors, then get the estimate rows. What do I do with the estimate rows? I used ANALYZE table_name but nothing really shows on the data output.

Please help!

Answer 1

Typically you’ll want to check for a few things

• The number of rows inserted is consistent
• Data Types are sufficient (Ensure you didn’t allocate too much or too little space to a variable)
• Data Types are consistent (I.e. You’re using integer data types for integers if it’s in the design)
• There weren’t errors caused special characters (You shouldn’t have this problem if you used a proper delimiter)

My assumption is “get estimate rows” is he simply wants the number of rows returned. I’ll leave that up to you to figure out how to determine that.

If the CSV file was created correctly, I wouldn’t sweat it too much. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or advice from your colleagues, that’s how you learn!

Best of luck!