Convert pg_dump to XLSX
Upload a .backup or .dump file and get back a XLSX file. 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 XLSX
Generated from the converter's own XLSX type mapping — this is what it actually emits, not an example.
| Your data | XLSX type |
|---|---|
| Whole number | number |
| Decimal (money) | number |
| Floating point | number |
| True / false | boolean |
| Date | date |
| Date and time | date |
| Short text | text |
| Long text | text |
| Binary data | hex text |
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.
Sheet names and cell types
The workbook is generated rather than exported out of Excel, so every choice in it is one the converter made. The two that show up the moment you open the file are what the sheet is called and what type each cell turned out to be.
- →The sheet takes the table's name cut to 31 characters, which is Excel's own limit for a tab, while the workbook file keeps the name in full - so a long table name is complete in the file name and shortened on the tab inside it.
- →Dates and timestamps become genuine date cells, formatted yyyy-mm-dd and yyyy-mm-dd h:mm:ss, rather than strings that merely look like dates. Sorting and date arithmetic work on them with no conversion step first.
- →A text column of digits stays text: a value like 01234 is written into a string cell, and Excel shows it as it was stored instead of dropping the zeros the way it does when the same data is opened from a CSV.
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 XLSX
- →One file per table. Booleans stay booleans and numbers stay numbers.
- →Excel has no fixed-point type, so decimals become numbers — use a database target if exactness matters.
What you get
A ZIP containing <table>.xlsx. If anything about your data needed a judgement call, a _warnings.txt explains it.
Questions
- Is converting pg_dump to XLSX 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 XLSX?
- Yes — that is the point. Whole numbers, decimals, dates and booleans are mapped to real XLSX 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.