How to restore a single table from a .sql postgresql backup?

Question

A table\'s rows were mistakenly deleted from the database. We have a db backup which results in a sql file that can restored like so:

psql -h localhost -d pr         


        

Answer 1

I've recently written a step by step guide on how to restore individual postgres tables.

In short it doesn't work with SQL backups, you need to switch to pg_dump to generate backup files:

pg_dump.exe --host localhost --port 5432 --username "postgres" --schema "public" --format custom --blobs --verbose --file "my_database.dump" "my_database"

Then, whenever you need to restore a specific table for data recovery or bug investigating purposes, you'll have to:

1. Create an empty local database my_database_restored
2. Create the table that needs to be restored my_table in the empty database
3. Run pg_restore to selectively import desired table’s data:

pg_restore.exe -U postgres --data-only -d "my_database_restored" -t "my_table" "my_database.dump"