UNICODE problem on 7.4 with COPY

[Toby Doig]

When I try to import data from a unicode file into PostgreSQL 7.4 under FreeBSD it appears to now understand the Unicode file format.

To demonstrate I export a set of Integers into a Unicode file from MSSQL 2000. I samba the file to a FreeBSD box and try to import from psql with COPY. It fails. Wordpad and Notepad both read the file ok, even after I bounce the file via the FreeBSD box (to test samba didn't munge it).

FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE #0
PGSql 7.4 (dl'd and compiled fri 28th Nov 2003)
Dual 800MHz P3's

I create a database with encoding = UNICODE.
I create a table

CREATE TABLE testunicode
(
anum int4
) WITHOUT OIDS;

I then use psql to import the file, which is a single column of integers.

copy testunicode from '/home/toby/itxt/anum.txt';
ERROR: invalid input syntax for integer: "ÿþ1"
CONTEXT: COPY testunicode, line 1, column anum: "ÿþ1"
When viewing the file as hex I see:
FF FE 31 00 31 00 32 00 37 00 39 00 30 00 0D 00 0A 00
ÿ þ 1 . 1 . 2 . 7 . 9 . 0 . . . . .

According to http://www.crispen.org/src/archive/0013.html

FF FE UTF-16/UCS-2, big endian

So, what is going wrong? Why can't I import this very simple unicode file?
I've searched the archives and google, but to no avail.

Btw, the actual stuff I want to import is larger and more complex, this little table is to demonstrate the problem.

Help would be muchly appreciated.
Toby

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[Gianni Mariani]

Toby Doig wrote:
....

So, what is going wrong? Why can't I import this very simple unicode file?
I've searched the archives and google, but to no avail.

try converting the file to utf-8.

iconv -t utf-8 -f utf-16 < unicode-file.txt > utf-8-file.txt


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[Tino Wildenhain]

Toby Doig schrieb:

When I try to import data from a unicode file into PostgreSQL 7.4 under FreeBSD it appears to now understand the Unicode file format.

To demonstrate I export a set of Integers into a Unicode file from MSSQL 2000. I samba the file to a FreeBSD box and try to import from psql with COPY. It fails. Wordpad and Notepad both read the file ok, even after I bounce the file via the FreeBSD box (to test samba didn't munge it).

FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE #0
PGSql 7.4 (dl'd and compiled fri 28th Nov 2003)
Dual 800MHz P3's

I create a database with encoding = UNICODE.
I create a table

CREATE TABLE testunicode
(
anum int4
) WITHOUT OIDS;

I then use psql to import the file, which is a single column of integers.

copy testunicode from '/home/toby/itxt/anum.txt';
ERROR: invalid input syntax for integer: "ÿþ1"
CONTEXT: COPY testunicode, line 1, column anum: "ÿþ1"
When viewing the file as hex I see:
FF FE 31 00 31 00 32 00 37 00 39 00 30 00 0D 00 0A 00
ÿ þ 1 . 1 . 2 . 7 . 9 . 0 . . . . .

According to http://www.crispen.org/src/archive/0013.html

FF FE UTF-16/UCS-2, big endian
See also
http://www.unicode.org/unicode/faq/utf_bom.html#22


So, what is going wrong? Why can't I import this very simple unicode file?
I've searched the archives and google, but to no avail.

Postgresql only accepts a stream of chars in the given client
encoding. This defaults to "utf-8" when you set up your
db as "unicode". psql does not read the BOM information
in files since it does not operate on files but on streams.
The same I fear is true for postgresqls COPY command.

I think a patch made by you is appreciated :-)

Regards
Tino
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