SQL script to create insert script

Question

A bit of a vague title, I will explain.

I am writing an SQL script to create an insert statement for each row of a table in my database, purely to be able to apply that

Answer 1

Use the quote_nullable() function new in PostgreSQL 8.4. In addition to permitting NULL values, it retains your data types and protects you from Bobby Tables (SQL injections):

SELECT 'INSERT INTO products (id,name,description) VALUES (' ||
quote_nullable(ID) || ',' || quote_nullable(name) || ',' ||
quote_nullable(description) || ');' FROM products;

In older versions, you get the same behavior with coalesce() and quote_literal():

SELECT 'INSERT INTO products (id,name,description) VALUES (' ||
coalesce(quote_literal(ID), 'null') || ',' ||
coalesce(quote_literal(name), 'null') || ',' ||
coalesce(quote_literal(description), 'null') || ',' ||
');' FROM products;