ref/dbf

Loading DBF data

This command instructs pgloader to load data from a DBF file. A default set of casting rules are provided and might be overloaded and appended to by the command.

Here’s an example with a remote HTTP source and some user defined casting rules:

LOAD DBF
    FROM http://www.insee.fr/fr/methodes/nomenclatures/cog/telechargement/2013/dbf/reg2013.dbf
    INTO postgresql://user@localhost/dbname
    WITH truncate, create table
    CAST column reg2013.region to integer,
         column reg2013.tncc to smallint;

The dbf format command accepts the following clauses and options.

DBF Source Specification: FROM

Filename where to load the data from. This support local files, HTTP URLs and zip files containing a single dbf file of the same name. Fetch such a zip file from an HTTP address is of course supported.

DBF Loading Options: WITH

When loading from a DBF file, the following options are supported:

truncate

When this option is listed, pgloader issues a TRUNCATE command against the PostgreSQL target table before reading the data file.

disable triggers

When this option is listed, pgloader issues an ALTER TABLE … DISABLE TRIGGER ALL command against the PostgreSQL target table before copying the data, then the command ALTER TABLE … ENABLE TRIGGER ALL once the COPY is done.

This option allows loading data into a pre-existing table ignoring the foreign key constraints and user defined triggers and may result in invalid foreign key constraints once the data is loaded. Use with care.

create table

When this option is listed, pgloader creates the table using the meta data found in the DBF file, which must contain a list of fields with their data type. A standard data type conversion from DBF to PostgreSQL is done.

table name

This options expects as its value the possibly qualified name of the table to create.

Default DB3 Casting Rules

When migrating from DB3 the following Casting Rules are provided:

type C to text using db3-trim-string
type M to text using db3-trim-string
type N to numeric using db3-numeric-to-pgsql-integer
type I to numeric using db3-numeric-to-pgsql-numeric
type L to boolean using logical-to-boolean
type D to date using db3-date-to-pgsql-date