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% of 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. As with other relational databases, PostgreSQL is mainly concerned with the lowest level of data, so extracting just data from these spreadsheets can present some challenges.
We can easily handle spreadsheet data if that spreadsheet's layout follows a very specific form, as follows:
- Each spreadsheet column becomes one column in one table.
- Each row of the spreadsheet becomes one row in one table.
- Data is only in one worksheet of the spreadsheet.
- Optionally, the first...
