Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog@xxxxxxxxx> writes: >> However, I'm wondering if there's a practical limit to how many rows you >> can insert within one transaction? > There's a limit of (I think) 2-4 billion commands per transaction. Each > command can insert any number of tuples. > So if you're doing one tuple per command that limits you to a few > billion inserts per transaction. Ofcourse, COPY is always faster > still... If you have any deferred triggers (including foreign keys) on the table then the practical limit is likely to be a lot less, say in the few millions. However, in a bulk data load situation you probably don't need to have such triggers; it's better to establish the constraint after you load the data. BTW, has the OP read http://developer.postgresql.org/docs/postgres/populate.html ? Much of this thread seems to be rehashing that page ... regards, tom lane
