Update arg name and docs for --no-constraints. Add Jeff Larson to AUT…

…HORS.

AUTHORS

@@ -11,4 +11,5 @@ The following individuals have contributed code to csvkit:
 * Matt Bone
 * Ryan Pitts
 * Hari Dara
+* Jeff Larson
 

csvkit/sql.py

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 
 NULL_COLUMN_MAX_LENGTH = 32
 
-def make_column(column, loosey=False):
+def make_column(column, no_constraints=False):
     """
     Creates a sqlalchemy column from a csvkit Column.
     """
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ def make_column(column, loosey=False):
     else:
         raise ValueError('Unexpected normalized column type: %s' % column.type)
 
-    if loosey is False:
+    if no_constraints is False:
         if column.type is NoneType:
             sql_type_kwargs['length'] = NULL_COLUMN_MAX_LENGTH
         elif column.type is unicode:
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ def get_connection(connection_string):
 
     return engine, metadata
 
-def make_table(csv_table, name='table_name', loosey=False, metadata=None):
+def make_table(csv_table, name='table_name', no_constraints=False, metadata=None):
     """
     Creates a sqlalchemy table from a csvkit Table.
     """
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ def make_table(csv_table, name='table_name', loosey=False, metadata=None):
     sql_table = Table(csv_table.name, metadata)
 
     for column in csv_table:
-        sql_table.append_column(make_column(column, loosey))
+        sql_table.append_column(make_column(column, no_constraints))
 
     return sql_table
 

csvkit/utilities/csvsql.py

@@ -22,8 +22,8 @@ def add_arguments(self):
                             help='In addition to creating the table, also insert the data into the table. Only valid when --db is specified.')
         self.argparser.add_argument('--table', dest='table_name',
                             help='Specify a name for the table to be created. If omitted, the filename (minus extension) will be used.')
-        self.argparser.add_argument('--loosey', dest='loosey', action='store_true',
-                            help='Generate a schema without limits or null checks. Useful for big tables.')
+        self.argparser.add_argument('--no-constraints', dest='no_constraints', action='store_true',
+                            help='Generate a schema without length limits or null checks. Useful when sampling big tables.')
 
     def main(self):
         if self.args.table_name:
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ def main(self):
         else:
             self.argparser.error('The --table argument is required when providing data over STDIN.')
 
-        if self.args.loosey:
-            loosey = True
+        if self.args.no_constraints:
+            no_constraints = True
 
         if self.args.dialect and self.args.connection_string:
             self.argparser.error('The --dialect option is only valid when --db is not specified.')
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ def main(self):
             except ImportError:
                 raise ImportError('You don\'t appear to have the necessary database backend installed for connection string you\'re trying to use.. Available backends include:\n\nPostgresql:\tpip install psycopg2\nMySQL:\t\tpip install MySQL-python\n\nFor details on connection strings and other backends, please see the SQLAlchemy documentation on dialects at: \n\nhttp://www.sqlalchemy.org/docs/dialects/\n\n')
 
-            sql_table = sql.make_table(csv_table, table_name, loosey, metadata)
+            sql_table = sql.make_table(csv_table, table_name, no_constraints, metadata)
             sql_table.create()
 
             if self.args.insert:
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ def main(self):
 
         # Writing to file
         else:
-            sql_table = sql.make_table(csv_table, table_name, loosey)
+            sql_table = sql.make_table(csv_table, table_name, no_constraints)
             self.output_file.write((u'%s\n' % sql.make_create_table_statement(sql_table, dialect=self.args.dialect)).encode('utf-8'))
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':

docs/scripts/csvsql.rst

@@ -39,8 +39,8 @@ Generate SQL statements for a CSV file or create execute those statements direct
                             specified.
       --table TABLE_NAME    Specify a name for the table to be created. If
                             omitted, the filename (minus extension) will be used.
-      --loosey              Generate a schema without limits or null checks.
-                            Useful for big tables.
+      --no-constraints      Generate a schema without length limits or null
+                            checks. Useful when sampling big tables.
 
 Also see: :doc:`common_arguments`.
 
@@ -56,5 +56,9 @@ Generate a statement in the PostgreSQL dialect::
 Create a table and import data from the CSV directly into Postgres::
 
     $ createdb test
-    $ csvsql --db postgresql:///test --name fy09 --insert examples/realdata/FY09_EDU_Recipients_by_State.csv
+    $ csvsql --db postgresql:///test --table fy09 --insert examples/realdata/FY09_EDU_Recipients_by_State.csv
+
+For large tables it may not be practical to process the entire table. One solution to this is to analyze a sample of the table. In this case it can be useful to turn off length limits and null checks with the ``no-constraints`` option::
+    
+    $ head -n 20 examples/realdata/FY09_EDU_Recipients_by_State.csv | csvsql --no-constraints --table fy09