In an exemplary embodiment of this disclosure, a method for loading data from a backup image of a database includes selecting a subset statement defining a subset of the data in the database. Tables of the database are identified based on metadata of the database. A target database is written having the structure but not the data of the identified tables. One or more table statements are constructed, by a computer processor, defining a subset of each identified table based on the subset statement. Selected data is unloaded from a backup image into the target database using respective table statements as filters.