SQL SERVER – SSMS Trick – Generating CSV file using Management Studio

In my previous blog I talked about using SQLCMD to generate a comma separate files for the table data.

Some blog readers reported that why we should use SQLCMD or BCP to generate the file when the same can be achieved using SQL Server Management Studio itself. Well, that was a strong statement and I liked the simplicity of the solution. Here are the steps. A lot of times it is our inability to learn some of the simple techniques present in the tools that we use make us even more productive.

Here are the steps to achieve the same. Go to SQL Server Management Studio > Choose Tools from Menu Bar > Click on Options. Go to “Query Results” > “SQL Server” > Click on “Results to Text”

Once we choose “Comma delimited” and hit OK – we will get below kind of output when we eecure a query (Note that we need to open a new Query Window so that the settings are saved)

Notice that first column is the column name. If we want to avoid that and wants ONLY the data, then we can customized that in the same place where we have modified the separator setting. If we uncheck “Include column headers in the result set” then we will get only the rows as output.

We can also choose custom delimiter. I have set delimiter as pipe (|) and unchecked the box which I mentioned earlier and below is the output for the same query.

As we can see that output is pipe separated and we just have data not column heading. This can be saved and imported again to some other server using bcp command, Bulk Insert command or Import/Export Wizard.

Recommended reading:

• SQL SERVER – Import CSV File Into SQL Server Using Bulk Insert – Load Comma Delimited File Into SQL Server
• SQL SERVER – FIX – Msg 4864, Level 16, State 1 – Bulk load data conversion error

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)