Convert pg_dump to Oracle

Upload a .backup or .dump file and get back a Oracle SQL script you can load straight into your database. Types are preserved rather than flattened to text. Free, no registration, up to 10MB.

Click to upload or drag and drop

CSV, Excel, SQLite, SQL, DBF (max 10 MB)

How your data is typed in Oracle

Generated from the converter's own Oracle type mapping — this is what it actually emits, not an example.

Your dataOracle type
Whole numberNUMBER(19)
Decimal (money)NUMBER(10,2)
Floating pointBINARY_DOUBLE
True / falseNUMBER(1)
DateDATE
Date and timeTIMESTAMP
Short textVARCHAR2(255)
Long textCLOB
Binary dataBLOB

Working from a pg_dump file

pg_dump has enough flags to change what its output even contains, and a few of them decide whether the file in front of you is convertible at all. These are the ones that matter here.

  • pg_dump -Fc and a plain pg_dump > file.sql both work, and so does --inserts or --column-inserts, though neither is necessary: the default COPY output is read too.
  • --schema-only gives you the tables with no rows in them. That is a valid conversion, and almost never the one that was wanted.
  • --data-only is the opposite problem: rows arrive with no CREATE TABLE to name their columns, and the conversion says so rather than inventing names for them.
  • Ownership and privilege statements are dropped while the archive is unpacked, so a dump taken as one role converts without that role having to exist anywhere.

Oracle-specific edges in the script

Oracle diverges further from ordinary SQL than any other target here, and the script is shaped around that. Three of its choices are worth reading before you load, because each is a place where the source can hold something Oracle has no room for.

  • Oracle's reserved list is full of words that legacy tables use as column names, so those get a trailing underscore: a column called DATE becomes DATE_, NUMBER becomes NUMBER_, LEVEL becomes LEVEL_.
  • Binary values are written as HEXTORAW('...'), which a plain SQL script can carry only up to 2000 hex characters - 1000 bytes. Anything larger needs PL/SQL chunking that no portable script can express, so a table of real attachments moves better through the SQLite or DuckDB target.
  • A string column of unknown length is declared VARCHAR2(4000) and anything longer becomes a CLOB. Under the default settings VARCHAR2 counts bytes rather than characters, so 4000 characters of Cyrillic or CJK will not fit in one.
  • Rows are batched a hundred to a statement, each block closed off with SELECT 1 FROM DUAL, so a 100,000-row table arrives as a thousand statements rather than a hundred thousand.

Reading pg_dump

  • Reads pg_dump custom-format archives (.backup, .dump) — pgAdmin's default backup option — as well as plain SQL dumps.
  • Data written as COPY blocks is read, not just INSERT statements. COPY is pg_dump's default, so a reader that only understands INSERT returns your tables with none of their rows.
  • Primary keys declared by a later ALTER TABLE, which is how pg_dump writes them, are preserved.

Writing Oracle

  • Uses INSERT ALL rather than multi-row VALUES, which Oracle rejects outright — the most common reason a generated Oracle script fails to load.
  • Dates are written with TO_DATE and an explicit format mask.
  • Booleans become NUMBER(1), because Oracle had no BOOLEAN column type before 23c.
  • Identifiers are capped at 30 characters so the script loads on Oracle 12.1 and earlier too.
  • Note that Oracle itself treats an empty string as NULL — that is Oracle behaviour, not a conversion error.

What you get

A ZIP containing dump.sql, plus a README with the exact command to load it. If anything about your data needed a judgement call, a _warnings.txt explains it.

Load this dump into Oracle:

  sqlplus USER/PASSWORD@//HOST:1521/SERVICE @dump.sql

Notes specific to Oracle:

  - Oracle treats an empty string as NULL. A column that held ''
    in the source will read back as NULL here. This is Oracle
    behaviour, not a conversion error, and it cannot be avoided.
  - Booleans are NUMBER(1), 1 or 0: Oracle had no BOOLEAN column
    type before 23c.
  - Identifiers are capped at 30 characters for compatibility
    with 12.1 and earlier.
  - Table and column names are quoted, so Oracle keeps their exact
    case. Unquoted Oracle identifiers fold to upper case, which
    means you must quote them in your queries too:
    SELECT * FROM "MyTable"; not SELECT * FROM MyTable;

Questions

Is converting pg_dump to Oracle free?
Yes. Files up to 10MB convert free with no account. There is a limit of five conversions per day per IP address.
Will my pg_dump data keep its types in Oracle?
Yes — that is the point. Whole numbers, decimals, dates and booleans are mapped to real Oracle types rather than everything becoming text. The mapping table above shows exactly what you get.
Do you store my file?
No. The file is written to a temporary directory, converted, and the directory is deleted as soon as your download has been sent.

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