On Sun, 2009-09-20 at 16:49 -0500, Alex Gadea wrote: > I am using psql to call an external sql file that executes a simple > select count(*): > > ie: select into ct count(*) from table; > > I can't figure out how to make the ct variable available to the shell > script once the external sql file completes execution.
Hi Alex, If you are using bash, for example: COUNT=`psql -d <database> -Atc "select count(*) from table;"` in a shell script, any string enclosed in back-quotes (`) is executed & the result is returned. So the above expression assigns the value returned by the psql command to the variable called COUNT. The -Atc tells psql to return only the unaligned value, no formatting or column names, etc. If you store your SQL command outside the script, then you could use: COUNT=`psql -d <database> -Atf <SQL_file>` HTH, Brent Wood Brent Wood DBA/GIS consultant NIWA, Wellington New Zealand NIWA is the trading name of the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd. -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
