PostGIS – How to Import Simple Geometry instead of MultiPolygons

Question

How do you import Simple Geometry E.g. Polygons instead of MultiPolygon geometry into a PostGIS database?

Answer

PGAdmin provides a Shapefile Importer tool which allows you to import Shapefiles into your PostGIS database. By default, if you view the import ‘Options’, you will notice that the option for importing Simple Geometries instead of MULTI geometries is unticked. Leaving this unticked and importing your Shapefile will mean that features are imported and stored as MultiPolygon types:

However, if your client application requires that your data is stored as Simple Polygons, then ensure in the ‘Options’ you choose to tick the box for ‘Generate Simple geometries instead of MULTI geometries’. The import will run and the data will now be stored as a POLYGON type: