Re: Inputting columns of data

On Monday 16 February 2004 15:46, C G wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> I have a text file with data like:
> 1 2 3
> 4 5 6
> 7 8 9
> i.e. so I have three columns of numbers.
>
> I wish to put this data into a table. However, I do not want it to take up
> three rows, rather only a single row and a single column. I was think
> something like this
>
> CREATE TABLE t1(data numeric[]);
> INSERT INTO TABLE t1 VALUES ('{1 4 7, 2 5 8, 3 6 9}')
>
> but this does not work.

I'm not sure what you thought it would do - this is supposed to be a three
element array of what type?
Oh - you don't need the "TABLE" on the insert either.

> What's the best way of approaching this problem? All the files I'll put
> into the table will not have the same number of columns, or be the same
> length. I would only like to access a single column of data, but never a
> single number.

Define your table:
CREATE TABLE t1 (data text);
INSERT INTO t1 VALUES ('1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9');

That'll store pretty much anything you like. If you need null values you might
want to investigate bytea type.

On the other hand, that's a poor way of using a relational database - can you
explain what you are trying to achieve? Someone might have a better way to do
it.
--
  Richard Huxton
  Archonet Ltd