| --- |
| title: Formatting Columns |
| --- |
| |
| The default column or field delimiter is the horizontal `TAB` character (`0x09`) for text files and the comma character (`0x2C`) for CSV files. You can declare a single character delimiter using the `DELIMITER` clause of `COPY`, `CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE` or the `hawq load` configuration table when you define your data format. The delimiter character must appear between any two data value fields. Do not place a delimiter at the beginning or end of a row. For example, if the pipe character ( | ) is your delimiter: |
| |
| ``` pre |
| data value 1|data value 2|data value 3 |
| ``` |
| |
| The following command shows the use of the pipe character as a column delimiter: |
| |
| ``` sql |
| =# CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE ext_table (name text, date date) |
| LOCATION ('gpfdist://host:port/filename.txt) |
| FORMAT 'TEXT' (DELIMITER '|'); |
| ``` |
| |
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