PostgreSQL 9 Administration Cookbook - Second Edition

Loading data from a spreadsheet

Spreadsheets are the most obvious starting place for most data stores. Studies within a range of businesses consistently show that more than 50 percent of the smaller data stores are held in spreadsheets or small desktop databases. Loading data from these sources is a frequent and important task for many DBAs.

Getting ready

Spreadsheets combine data, presentation, and programs all into one file. That's perfect for power users wanting to work quickly. Like other relational databases, PostgreSQL is mainly concerned with the lowest level of data, so extracting just the data can present some challenges.

We can easily handle spreadsheet data if that spreadsheet's layout follows a very specific form, as follows:

• Each spreadsheet ...