Export and import

• YSQL
• YCQL

You use the ycqlsh script to export and import YCQL data. For details on how to use the script to connect to a YugabyteDB cluster, as well as the full list of available options, see ycqlsh reference.

Export schema

You use the DESCRIBE command (abbreviated to DESC) to export the schema.

To export the schema of a single keyspace, run the following command:

./bin/ycqlsh -e "DESC KEYSPACE <keyspace_name>" > <file>

• keyspace_name is the name of the keyspace to be exported.
• file is the path to the resulting CQL script file.

To export the schema of every keyspace, run the following command:

ycqlsh -e "DESC SCHEMA" > <file>

file is the path to the resulting CQL script file.

Export data

To export your data, use the COPY TO command that queries all rows of the specified table and writes into a comma-separated values (CSV) file.

The following is a full syntax of the COPY TO command:

COPY table_name [( column_list )]
TO 'file_name'[, 'file2_name', ...] | STDIN
[WITH option = 'value' [AND ...]]

• table_name is the name of the table to be exported.
• column_list is an optional comma-separated list of column names.
• file_name is the name of the file to which to export the data.

The command supports multiple options. The following table outlines some of the more commonly used ones.

Import schema

To import a schema, use the SOURCE command, as follows:

ycqlsh -e "SOURCE '<file>'"

file is the path to the CQL script file from which to import the schema.

Import data

After you import the schema, use the COPY FROM command to import the actual data from one or more CSV files.

The following is a full syntax of the COPY FROM command:

COPY table_name [( column_list )]
FROM 'file_name'[, 'file2_name', ...] | STDIN
[WITH option = 'value' [AND ...]]

• table_name is the name of the destination table.
• column_list is an optional comma-separated list of column names.
• file_name is the name of the file from which to import the data.

The following table lists commonly-used options.