Convert PostgreSQL backup 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 PostgreSQL backup
A PostgreSQL backup is not one thing. pg_dump can write plain SQL, a compressed custom-format archive or a tar archive, and all three routinely end up carrying the same .dump or .backup extension.
- →The first five bytes decide: PGDMP means an archive, which is unpacked with pg_restore, and anything else is treated as plain SQL. The extension is never trusted for this.
- →pg_restore is run with --file=- to print SQL to a pipe, so your backup is converted without ever being restored into a live PostgreSQL server: nothing connects to a database and nothing is created.
- →The directory format, pg_dump -Fd, is a folder rather than a file and cannot be uploaded. Re-dump it as -Fc or as plain SQL.
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 PostgreSQL backup
- →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 PostgreSQL backup 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 PostgreSQL backup 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.