Dynamic File Name for COPY TO in Stored Procedure

On Thursday, February 23, 2012 6:42:53 am Carlos Oliva wrote:

Hi,
What would it be the correct format for using a variable in a stored
procedure that uses COPY TO?

I have the current stored procedure:
CREATE FUNCTION Table_To_File(text) RETURNS void AS $delimeter$
COPY (SELECT * FROM table_to_xml('table', true, false, '')) TO '$1'
WITH CSV QUOTE ' ';
$delimeter$
LANGUAGE SQL;

When I run the stored procedure: psql -d <db name> -c "select
Table_To_File('some_absolute_file_name')"; I get the error that I must
use absolute file names.

When I replace TO '$1' with TO '/tmp/toto.xml', the stored procedure
runs fine and creates the local file.

I have tried several different ways to escape the $1 variable to no
avail. At best, I get the same error.

You will need to switch to using plpgsql and its EXECUTE statement to build the COPY
statement :

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/interactive/plpgsql-statements.html#PLPGSQL-STATEMENTS-EXECUTING-DYN

--
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@gmail.com

That worked. Thank you Adrian

-----Original Message-----
From: Adrian Klaver [mailto:adrian.klaver@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2012 9:58 AM
To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Cc: Carlos Oliva
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Dynamic File Name for COPY TO in Stored Procedure

On Thursday, February 23, 2012 6:42:53 am Carlos Oliva wrote:

Hi,
What would it be the correct format for using a variable in a stored
procedure that uses COPY TO?

I have the current stored procedure:
CREATE FUNCTION Table_To_File(text) RETURNS void AS $delimeter$
COPY (SELECT * FROM table_to_xml('table', true, false, '')) TO '$1'
WITH CSV QUOTE ' ';
$delimeter$
LANGUAGE SQL;

When I run the stored procedure: psql -d <db name> -c "select
Table_To_File('some_absolute_file_name')"; I get the error that I

must

use absolute file names.

When I replace TO '$1' with TO '/tmp/toto.xml', the stored procedure
runs fine and creates the local file.

I have tried several different ways to escape the $1 variable to no
avail. At best, I get the same error.

You will need to switch to using plpgsql and its EXECUTE statement to
build the COPY
statement :

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/interactive/plpgsql-statements.html#P
LPGSQL-STATEMENTS-EXECUTING-DYN

--
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@gmail.com