How to export data as CSV format from SQL Server u

Question

I can quite easily dump data into a text file such as:

sqlcmd -S myServer -d myDB -E -Q "select col1, col2, col3 from SomeTable" 
     -o "MyData.txt"

However, I have looked at the help files for SQLCMD but have not seen an option specifically for CSV.

Is there a way to dump data from a table into a CSV text file using SQLCMD?

Answer 1

Since following 2 reasons, you should run my solution in CMD:

1. There may be double quotes in the query

2. Login username & password is sometimes necessary to query a remote SQL Server instance

   sqlcmd -U [your_User]  -P[your_password] -S [your_remote_Server] -d [your_databasename]  -i "query.txt" -o "output.csv" -s"," -w 700
   

Answer 2

You can do it in a hackish way. Careful using the sqlcmd hack. If the data has double quotes or commas you will run into trouble.

You can use a simple script to do it properly:

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Data Exporter                                                 '
'                                                               '
' Description: Allows the output of data to CSV file from a SQL '
'       statement to either Oracle, SQL Server, or MySQL        '
' Author: C. Peter Chen, http://dev-notes.com                   '
' Version Tracker:                                              '
'       1.0   20080414 Original version                         '
'   1.1   20080807 Added email functionality                '
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
option explicit
dim dbType, dbHost, dbName, dbUser, dbPass, outputFile, email, subj, body, smtp, smtpPort, sqlstr

'''''''''''''''''
' Configuration '
'''''''''''''''''
dbType = "oracle"                 ' Valid values: "oracle", "sqlserver", "mysql"
dbHost = "dbhost"                 ' Hostname of the database server
dbName = "dbname"                 ' Name of the database/SID
dbUser = "username"               ' Name of the user
dbPass = "password"               ' Password of the above-named user
outputFile = "c:\output.csv"      ' Path and file name of the output CSV file
email = "[e-mail]"           ' Enter email here should you wish to email the CSV file (as attachment); if no email, leave it as empty string ""
  subj = "Email Subject"          ' The subject of your email; required only if you send the CSV over email
  body = "Put a message here!"    ' The body of your email; required only if you send the CSV over email
  smtp = "mail.server.com"        ' Name of your SMTP server; required only if you send the CSV over email
  smtpPort = 25                   ' SMTP port used by your server, usually 25; required only if you send the CSV over email
sqlStr = "select user from dual"  ' SQL statement you wish to execute
'''''''''''''''''''''
' End Configuration '
'''''''''''''''''''''



dim fso, conn

'Create filesystem object 
set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

'Database connection info
set Conn = CreateObject("ADODB.connection")
Conn.ConnectionTimeout = 30
Conn.CommandTimeout = 30
if dbType = "oracle" then
    conn.open("Provider=MSDAORA.1;User ID=" & dbUser & ";Password=" & dbPass & ";Data Source=" & dbName & ";Persist Security Info=False")
elseif dbType = "sqlserver" then
    conn.open("Driver={SQL Server};Server=" & dbHost & ";Database=" & dbName & ";Uid=" & dbUser & ";Pwd=" & dbPass & ";")
elseif dbType = "mysql" then
    conn.open("DRIVER={MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver}; SERVER=" & dbHost & ";PORT=3306;DATABASE=" & dbName & "; UID=" & dbUser & "; PASSWORD=" & dbPass & "; OPTION=3")
end if

' Subprocedure to generate data.  Two parameters:
'   1. fPath=where to create the file
'   2. sqlstr=the database query
sub MakeDataFile(fPath, sqlstr)
    dim a, showList, intcount
    set a = fso.createtextfile(fPath)

    set showList = conn.execute(sqlstr)
    for intcount = 0 to showList.fields.count -1
        if intcount <> showList.fields.count-1 then
            a.write """" & showList.fields(intcount).name & ""","
        else
            a.write """" & showList.fields(intcount).name & """"
        end if
    next
    a.writeline ""

    do while not showList.eof
        for intcount = 0 to showList.fields.count - 1
            if intcount <> showList.fields.count - 1 then
                a.write """" & showList.fields(intcount).value & ""","
            else
                a.write """" & showList.fields(intcount).value & """"
            end if
        next
        a.writeline ""
        showList.movenext
    loop
    showList.close
    set showList = nothing

    set a = nothing
end sub

' Call the subprocedure
call MakeDataFile(outputFile,sqlstr)

' Close
set fso = nothing
conn.close
set conn = nothing

if email <> "" then
    dim objMessage
    Set objMessage = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
    objMessage.Subject = "Test Email from vbs"
    objMessage.From = email
    objMessage.To = email
    objMessage.TextBody = "Please see attached file."
    objMessage.AddAttachment outputFile

    objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing") = 2
    objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver") = smtp
    objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport") = smtpPort

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Update

    objMessage.Send
end if

'You're all done!!  Enjoy the file created.
msgbox("Data Writer Done!")

^{Source: Writing SQL output to CSV with VBScript.}

Answer 3

Alternate option with BCP:

exec master..xp_cmdshell 'BCP "sp_who" QUERYOUT C:\av\sp_who.txt -S MC0XENTC -T -c '

Answer 4

Is this not bcp was meant for?

bcp "select col1, col2, col3 from database.schema.SomeTable" queryout  "c:\MyData.txt"  -c -t"," -r"\n" -S ServerName -T

Run this from your command line to check the syntax.

bcp /?

For example:

usage: bcp {dbtable | query} {in | out | queryout | format} datafile
  [-m maxerrors]            [-f formatfile]          [-e errfile]
  [-F firstrow]             [-L lastrow]             [-b batchsize]
  [-n native type]          [-c character type]      [-w wide character type]
  [-N keep non-text native] [-V file format version] [-q quoted identifier]
  [-C code page specifier]  [-t field terminator]    [-r row terminator]
  [-i inputfile]            [-o outfile]             [-a packetsize]
  [-S server name]          [-U username]            [-P password]
  [-T trusted connection]   [-v version]             [-R regional enable]
  [-k keep null values]     [-E keep identity values]
  [-h "load hints"]         [-x generate xml format file]
  [-d database name]

Please, note that bcp can not output column headers.

See: bcp Utility docs page.

Example from the above page:

bcp.exe MyTable out "D:\data.csv" -T -c -C 65001 -t , ...

Answer 5

You can run something like this:

sqlcmd -S MyServer -d myDB -E -Q "select col1, col2, col3 from SomeTable" 
       -o "MyData.csv" -h-1 -s"," -w 700

• -h-1 removes column name headers from the result
  
• -s"," sets the column seperator to ,
  
• -w 700 sets the row width to 700 chars (this will need to be as wide as the longest row or it will wrap to the next line)

Answer 6

This answer builds on the solution from @iain-elder, which works well except for the large database case (as pointed out in his solution). The entire table needs to fit in your system's memory, and for me this was not an option. I suspect the best solution would use the System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader and a custom CSV serializer (see here for an example) or another language with an MS SQL driver and CSV serialization. In the spirit of the original question which was probably looking for a no dependency solution, the PowerShell code below worked for me. It is very slow and inefficient especially in instantiating the $data array and calling Export-Csv in append mode for every $chunk_size lines.

$chunk_size = 10000
$command = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
$command.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM <TABLENAME>"
$command.Connection = $connection
$connection.open()
$reader = $command.ExecuteReader()

$read = $TRUE
while($read){
    $counter=0
    $DataTable = New-Object System.Data.DataTable
    $first=$TRUE;
    try {
        while($read = $reader.Read()){

            $count = $reader.FieldCount
            if ($first){
                for($i=0; $i -lt $count; $i++){
                    $col = New-Object System.Data.DataColumn $reader.GetName($i)
                    $DataTable.Columns.Add($col)
                }
                $first=$FALSE;
            }

            # Better way to do this?
            $data=@()
            $emptyObj = New-Object System.Object
            for($i=1; $i -le $count; $i++){
                $data +=  $emptyObj
            }

            $reader.GetValues($data) | out-null
            $DataRow = $DataTable.NewRow()
            $DataRow.ItemArray = $data
            $DataTable.Rows.Add($DataRow)
            $counter += 1
            if ($counter -eq $chunk_size){
                break
            }
        }
        $DataTable | Export-Csv "output.csv" -NoTypeInformation -Append
    }catch{
        $ErrorMessage = $_.Exception.Message
        Write-Output $ErrorMessage
        $read=$FALSE
        $connection.Close()
        exit
    }
}
$connection.close()