Importing shapefile to PostGIS using Python and ogr

Question

I just export a PostGIS Table to shp using this tips but I'm not able to import a shp to PostGIS using the same library(ogr). Any idea?

• Jesse Crocker: Do you really need to use python to do it, or are you just trying to import the file? I fall you need to do is import the file then use ogr2ogr on the command line ogr2ogr -f "PostgreSQL" PG:"dbname=DBNAME host=localhost" file.shp -nln TABLENAME

Answer 1

In pure Python, without using the subprocess module (os.system is deprecated) to call ogr2ogr or shp2pgsql, for example):

1) with ogr

• Append a shapefile to a postgis table using the GDAL/OGR Python interface

2) with ogr and psycopg2 from the book Python Geospatial Development (Eric Westra), Chapter 7, p.219

import os.path 
import psycopg2
import osgeo.ogr 
connection = psycopg2.connect("dbname=... user=...") 
cursor = connection.cursor() 
cursor.execute("DELETE FROM countries") 
srcFile = os.path.join("DISTAL-data", "TM_WORLD_BORDERS-0.3","TM_WORLD_BORDERS-0.3.shp") 
shapefile = osgeo.ogr.Open(srcFile) 
layer = shapefile.GetLayer(0) 
for i in range(layer.GetFeatureCount()): 
 feature = layer.GetFeature(i) 
 name = feature.GetField("NAME").decode("Latin-1") 
 wkt = feature.GetGeometryRef().ExportToWkt() 
 cursor.execute("INSERT INTO countries (name,outline) " +"VALUES (%s, ST_GeometryFromText(%s, " +"4326))", (name.encode("utf8"), wkt)) 
connection.commit() 

3) with psycopg2 only

• How to save a newly created shapefile in PostGIS?

4) with psycopg2 and other spatial libraries

• shp-postgis-schema with pyshp (shapefile)
• shapefile_importer.py, also with pyshp

• bugmenot123: Option 3 does not actually have an answer to the question.