Export & Import Database

The EXPORT DATABASE command allows you to export the contents of the database to a specific directory. The IMPORT DATABASE command allows you to then read the contents again.

Examples

-- export the database to the target directory
EXPORT DATABASE 'target_directory';
-- export the table contents with the given options
EXPORT DATABASE 'target_directory' (FORMAT CSV, DELIMITER '|');
-- export the table contents as parquet
EXPORT DATABASE 'target_directory' (FORMAT PARQUET);
-- export as parquet, compressed with ZSTD, with a row_group_size of 100000
EXPORT DATABASE 'target_directory' (FORMAT PARQUET, COMPRESSION ZSTD, ROW_GROUP_SIZE 100000);
--reload the database again
IMPORT DATABASE 'target_directory'

For details regarding the writing of Parquet files, see the Parquet Files page in the Data Import section, and the Copy Statement page.

Syntax

The EXPORT DATABASE command exports the full contents of the database - including schema information, tables, views and sequences - to a specific directory that can then be loaded again. The created directory will be structured as follows:

target_directory/schema.sql
target_directory/load.sql
target_directory/t_1.csv
...
target_directory/t_n.csv

The schema.sql file contains the schema statements that are found in the database. It contains any CREATE SCHEMA, CREATE TABLE, CREATE VIEW and CREATE SEQUENCE commands that are necessary to re-construct the database.

The load.sql file contains a set of COPY statements that can be used to read the data from the CSV files again. The file contains a single COPY statement for every table found in the schema.

The database can be reloaded by using the IMPORT DATABASE command again, or manually by running schema.sql followed by load.sql to re-load the data.