Postgres: \copy syntax error in .sql file

Question

I'm trying to write a script that copies data from a crosstab query to a .csv file in Postgres 8.4. I am able to run the command in the psql command line but when I put the command in a file and run it using the -f option, I get a syntax error.

Here's an example of what I'm looking at (from this great answer):

CREATE TEMP TABLE t (
  section   text
 ,status    text
 ,ct        integer 
);

INSERT INTO t VALUES
 ('A', 'Active', 1), ('A', 'Inactive', 2)
,('B', 'Active', 4), ('B', 'Inactive', 5)
                   , ('C', 'Inactive', 7);

\copy (
SELECT * FROM crosstab(
       'SELECT section, status, ct
        FROM   t
        ORDER  BY 1,2' 
       ,$$VALUES ('Active'::text), ('Inactive')$$)
AS ct ("Section" text, "Active" int, "Inactive" int)
) TO 'test.csv' HEADER CSV

I then run this and get the following syntax error:

$ psql [system specific] -f copy_test.sql
CREATE TABLE
INSERT 0 5
psql:copy_test.sql:12: \copy: parse error at end of line
psql:copy_test.sql:19: ERROR:  syntax error at or near ")"
LINE 7: ) TO 'test.csv' HEADER CSV
        ^

A similar exercise doing just a simple query without crosstab works without incident.

What is causing the syntax error and how can I copy this table to a csv file using script file?

Answer 1

psql thinks your first command is just \copy ( and the lines below that are from another unrelated statement. Meta-commands aren't spread on multiple lines, because newline is is a terminator for them.

Relevant excerpts from psql manpage with some emphasis added:

Meta-Commands

Anything you enter in psql that begins with an unquoted backslash is a psql meta-command that is processed by psql itself. These commands make psql more useful for administration or scripting. Meta-commands are often called slash or backslash commands.
....
....(skipped)

Parsing for arguments stops at the end of the line, or when another unquoted backslash is found. An unquoted backslash is taken as the beginning of a new meta-command. The special sequence \\ (two backslashes) marks the end of arguments and continues parsing SQL commands, if any. That way SQL and psql commands can be freely mixed on a line. But in any case, the arguments of a meta-command cannot continue beyond the end of the line.

So the first error is that \copy ( failing, then the lines below are interpreted as an independent SELECT which looks fine until line 7 when there is a spurious closing parenthesis.

As told in the comments, the fix would be to cram the whole meta-command into a single line.