Question

Is there any easy tool to load CSVs into PostgreSQL?
I know there’s the POSTGIS DBF loader tool but I was wondering if there’s any non-commercial or commercial add-on that allows one to easily load in a CSV.

Answer 1

The COPY command, built-in to PostgreSQL, does exactly what you want. It’s most useful when used in its \copy variant via psql.

Check the documentation for your particular Pg version, as COPY options vary. In future please mention your Pg version when posting. Assuming you’re on 9.1, then from a psql client cou could use:

\copy target_table from 'the_file.csv' with (format csv)

and possibly other options, as documented in the link above, depending on the details of your CSV dialect.

Note that the \copy command will not work from PgAdmin-III or other clients; it’s specific to psql. Regular COPY works from any client, but requires that the file be accessible by the database server‘s postgres process, so it’s much less convenient.

You can also use pg_bulkload or ETL tools like Talend and Pentaho if the job is huge or more complicated.