{"id":2374,"date":"2016-08-23T14:44:13","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T14:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.couchbase.com\/blog\/?p=2374"},"modified":"2025-06-13T19:30:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T02:30:02","slug":"copying-documents-between-buckets-in-couchbase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.couchbase.com\/blog\/copying-documents-between-buckets-in-couchbase\/","title":{"rendered":"Copying Documents Between Buckets in Couchbase"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

When I\u2019m at a user group or conference, people often come up to me afterwards with good questions. This is a great way for me to get blog post ideas: if they have a question, chances are lots of other people have the same one. It\u2019s also a great way for me to get to know Couchbase<\/a> better.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

This post is for one of those questions: can I copy documents from one bucket to another<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Copy from bucket to bucket<\/h2>\n
\n
\n

Yes! In fact, if you\u2019ve done this sort of thing in SQL, then you are not too far from already knowing the answer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"Fire<\/div>\n
Fire buckets Image Licensed through Creative Commons via Paul Harrop<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

There are command line tools to backup<\/a>\/restore<\/a> a bucket, but for this post, I\u2019m going to assume that what you want is to make a copy of some documents from bucket A into bucket B.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It\u2019s as easy as using a N1QL INSERT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Start by creating a N1QL SELECT<\/code><\/code> to get the documents you want out of the first bucket. I\u2019m going to show a very simplified SELECT<\/code><\/code> that gets all<\/em> the documents from my default<\/code><\/code> bucket. If you only want a subset, you can use a WHERE<\/code><\/code> clause.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
SELECT META().id _k, _v\r\nfrom `default` _v<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Since we\u2019re copying to another bucket, we need both the key and the document itself. This query selects the document key using the META()<\/code><\/code> function, and selects the document using a _v<\/code><\/code> alias.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Next, I\u2019ll create an INSERT<\/code><\/code> to put these selected documents into another bucket, which I called target<\/code><\/code>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
INSERT INTO `target` (KEY _k, VALUE _v)\r\nSELECT META().id _k, _v\r\nfrom `default` _v<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
An INSERT<\/code><\/code> needs a key and a value. I have those from the SELECT<\/code><\/code>. All done.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
More information about N1QL INSERT<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
The link:N1QL INSERT<\/a> is very powerful, and there are a lot of other things you can do with it:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n