csv_quote

Variable

csv_quote - The quoting character to be used during 'csv' display style

Description

When output is produced by the 'csv' display style (see style), any column that meets the following criteria will be surrounded by the quotes specified by this variable:

• The value contains leading or trailing white-space
• The value contains the delimiter character
• The value contains a newline character

The default quote is a double-quote, like so:

1> values('hi,there', 'a', ',', 'b')
2> go --no-headers -m csv
"hi,there",a,",",b

The ${csv_quote} variable may be used to change which character is used for quoting, such as:

1> \set csv_quote=\'
1> values('hi,there', 'a', ',', 'b')
2> go --no-headers -m csv
'hi,there',a,',',b

Note that the quote need not be a single character:

1> \set csv_quote=OH_NO
1> values('hi,there', 'a', ',', 'b')
2> go --no-headers -m csv
OH_NOhi,thereOH_NO,a,OH_NO,OH_NO,b

For columns that contain the quoting character, the default behavior is to double the quoting character like so:

1> \set csv_quote=\"
1> values('hi "Scott"', 'a')
2> go --no-headers -m csv
"hi ""Scott""",a

However this can be changed via the $csv_quote_esc variable.

See also

style, csv_delimiter, csv_quote_esc, csv_null