Copying a large field (varbinary(max)) to file / clipboard

Question

I have a VARBINARY(MAX) field in a database table which contains ~35k characters. This field is a converted word document which unfortunately no longer have access to.

This field is present in my dev database and I'm looking to port this value to a live database. However, if I purely select the contents out of the grid results in SQL I seem only to get ~28k of the available characters.

So my question is this, what's the best way to migrate a field which has contents too large to simple copy and paste into and insert script?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

EDIT:

As additional info, outputting the results to file (albeit to .txt) seem to give me less chars than via grid. If I export the query results to file post running the query to grid I seem to get a literal representation of what's in the query window at the time (so if I stretch the window I get more characters than if I compress the column width)

Answer 1

To reliably copy large strings out of your SSMS query results pane, you want to pay close attention to the following settings (I'm looking at SSMS 10.50.2500.0 right now):

Tools > Options > Query Results > SQL Server > Results to Grid
    Max chars retreived:
        Non-XML: 65535
        XML: Unlimited

Tools > Options > Query Results > SQL Server > Results to Text
    Max chars displayed:    
        8192

You may need to at least open a new query window for the settings to apply. Notice that since XML is unlimited, you can potentially cast to XML to get full results. In this case you might do the following:

select cast(convert(varchar(max), MyColumn, 1) as xml) -- Use style 1 to get "0x..."

All that said, there may be better (and automatable/reproducible) methods for moving data around your systems as others have mentioned:

• Setup a linked server to simply run an insert statement
• Use openrowset to query a remote server
• SSMS: Export data, Generate scripts, results to file
• SSIS
• 3rd party tools (Redgate Data Compare, etc.)

Answer 2

You can simply export (Save As) your results to a csv.

1) Run the query in SSMS
2) Results are display in the grid format
3) Right click on the grid, and choose Save Results As
4) Choose a format of csv or text file
5) Save the results to file

This way will export all the data and from there you can select all the text you want.

Note: These steps were done using SSMS 2012 but should be the same or similar for 2008 and other Database management tools

Answer 3

SSMSBoost add-in for SSMS that I develop has 2 features that can help you:

1. It can "visualize" documents saved in cells right from ResultsGrid. So you will be able to see your document in word right from SSMS. Link: http://www.ssmsboost.com/Features/ssms-add-in-results-grid-visualizers-feature

2. It can copy all bytes from cell to clipboard. You can paste the data then in some "good" text editor and save it as .doc. But first solution is better, as far as you will get word document directly: http://www.ssmsboost.com/Features/ssms-add-in-copy-results-grid-cell-contents-line-with-breaks

Answer 4

Skip the grid
In SSMS Query Results To File
Run the query

Or why don't you used linked server to insert directly

I tested and save to file does truncate.

Can you use .NET with a DataReader and .GetBinary ?