doc: Add example file for COPY

danielgustafsson · danielgustafsson · commit afd2547ac645 · 2025-07-17T00:21:18.000+02:00
The paragraph for introducing INSERT and COPY discussed how a file could be used for bulk loading with COPY, without actually showing what the file would look like. This adds a programlisting for the file contents. Backpatch to all supported branches since this example has lacked the file contents since PostgreSQL 7.2. Author: Daniel Gustafsson <daniel@yesql.se> Reviewed-by: Fujii Masao <masao.fujii@oss.nttdata.com> Reviewed-by: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/158017814191.19852.15019251381150731439@wrigleys.postgresql.org Backpatch-through: 13
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/query.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/query.sgml
@@ -264,8 +264,18 @@ COPY weather FROM '/home/user/weather.txt';
 
     where the file name for the source file must be available on the
     machine running the backend process, not the client, since the backend process
-    reads the file directly.  You can read more about the
-    <command>COPY</command> command in <xref linkend="sql-copy"/>.
+    reads the file directly.  The data inserted above into the weather table
+    could also be inserted from a file containing (values are separated by a
+    tab character):
+
+<programlisting>
+San Francisco    46    50    0.25    1994-11-27
+San Francisco    43    57    0.0    1994-11-29
+Hayward    37    54    \N    1994-11-29
+</programlisting>
+
+    You can read more about the <command>COPY</command> command in
+    <xref linkend="sql-copy"/>.
    </para>
   </sect1>
 
