Using pg_dump to only get insert statements from one table within database

I'm looking for a way to get all rows as INSERT statements from one specific table within a database using pg_dump in PostgreSQL.

E.g., I have table A and all rows in table A I need as INSERT statements, it should also dump those statements to a file.

Is this possible?

5 Answers

if version < 8.4.0

pg_dump -D -t <table> <database> 

Add -a before the -t if you only want the INSERTs, without the CREATE TABLE etc to set up the table in the first place.

version >= 8.4.0

pg_dump --column-inserts --data-only --table=<table> <database> 

If you want to DUMP your inserts into an .sql file:

1. cd to the location which you want to .sql file to be located
2. pg_dump --column-inserts --data-only --table=<table> <database> > my_dump.sql

Note the > my_dump.sql command. This will put everything into a sql file named my_dump

just in case you are using a remote access and want to dump all database data, you can use:

pg_dump -a -h your_host -U your_user -W -Fc your_database > DATA.dump

it will create a dump with all database data and use

pg_restore -a -h your_host -U your_user -W -Fc your_database < DATA.dump

to insert the same data in your data base considering you have the same structure

Put into a script I like something like that:

#!/bin/bash set -o xtrace # remove me after debug TABLE=some_table_name DB_NAME=prod_database BASE_DIR=/var/backups/someDir LOCATION="${BASE_DIR}/myApp_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)" FNAME="${LOCATION}_${DB_NAME}_${TABLE}.sql" # Create backups directory if not exists if [[ ! -e $BASE_DIR ]];then mkdir $BASE_DIR chown -R postgres:postgres $BASE_DIR fi sudo -H -u postgres pg_dump --column-inserts --data-only --table=$TABLE $DB_NAME > $FNAME sudo gzip $FNAME 

for postgres 12, this worked for me:

pg_dump -d <database> -t <table> > DATA.dump