SQL Server : export query as a .txt file

Question

I am trying to export my SQL Server query results into a folder in .txt format (this is for an automated job)

I know the equivalent in MySQL works with INTO OUTFILE. Does anyone know the best way to do this in SQL Server 2008 Management Studio?

SELECT DISTINCT RTRIM (s1.SGMNTID) AS 'AccCode',RTRIM (s1.DSCRIPTN) AS 'CodeDesc', CASE
    WHEN  s1.SGMTNUMB = '1' THEN '1' 
    WHEN s1.SGMTNUMB = '2' THEN '2'
    WHEN s1.SGMTNUMB = '3' THEN '110'
    WHEN s1.SGMTNUMB = '4' THEN '4'
    WHEN s1.SGMTNUMB = '5' THEN '120'
    END AS 'AccountType_id',
CASE WHEN s1.SGMTNUMB = '2' 
THEN LEFT(s1.SGMNTID, 2)
ELSE 'DEFAULT'
END AS 'AccGroupName'

 FROM GL40200 s1

UNION 

SELECT  REPLACE ([ACTNUMBR_1]+'-'+ [ACTNUMBR_2]+'-'+ [ACTNUMBR_3]+'-'+[ACTNUMBR_4]+'-'+    [ACTNUMBR_5],' ', '') AS 'AccCode',
 '' AS 'CodeDesc',
 '0' AS 'AccountType_id',
 'Default' AS 'AccGroupName'
FROM GL00100 a

INTO OUTFILE 'C:\Users\srahmani\verian/myfilename.txt'

Answer 1

You do this in the SSMS app, not the SQL.

In the toolbar select:

Query --> Results To --> Results To File

Then Execute the SQL statements and it will prompt you to save to a text file with an .rpt extension. Open the results in a Text Editor.

Answer 2

You can use bcp utility.

To copy the result set from a Transact-SQL statement to a data file, use the queryout option. The following example copies the result of a query into the Contacts.txt data file. The example assumes that you are using Windows Authentication and have a trusted connection to the server instance on which you are running the bcp command. At the Windows command prompt, enter:

bcp "<your query here>" queryout Contacts.txt -c -T

You can use BCP by directly calling as operating sytstem command in SQL Agent job.

Answer 3

Another way is from command line, using the osql:

OSQL -S SERVERNAME -E -i thequeryfile.sql -o youroutputfile.txt

This can be used from a BAT file and shceduled by a windows user to authenticated.

Answer 4

You can use windows Powershell to execute a query and output it to a text file

Invoke-Sqlcmd -Query "Select * from database" -ServerInstance "Servername\SQL2008" -Database "DbName" > c:\Users\outputFileName.txt

Answer 5

The BCP Utility can also be used in the form of a .bat file, but be cautious of escape sequences (ie quotes "" must be used in conjunction with ) and the appropriate tags.

.bat Example:

C:
bcp "\"YOUR_SERVER\".dbo.Proc" queryout C:\FilePath.txt -T -c -q
-- Add PAUSE here if you'd like to see the completed batch

-q MUST be used in the presence of quotations within the query itself.

BCP can also run Stored Procedures if necessary. Again, be cautious: Temporary Tables must be created prior to execution or else you should consider using Table Variables.

Answer 6

This is quite simple to do and the answer is available in other queries. For those of you who are viewing this:

select entries from my_entries where id='42' INTO OUTFILE 'bishwas.txt';