Script to save varbinary data to disk

Question

I have some varbinary data stored in a table in MS Sql Server 2005. Does anyone have SQL code that takes a query as input (lets say the query guarantees that a single colum

Answer 1

SQL is designed to work with database objects, so from it's point of view anything else doesn't exists. Sure, there are extended procedures like xp_cmdshell that allow you interact with the operating system, but they are proprietary extensions and not part of T-SQL.

Maybe the closest approach would be using the FILESTREAM attribute for binary types of SQL Server 2008, which allow storing some columns directly as files in a folder instead of using the database:

FILESTREAM overview

Note that the FILESTREAM storage is designed for maintain large files out of the database in order to increase performance, and not for allowing direct access to files (i.e. T-SQL still doesn't have the concept of a filesystem). I my opinion, direct access to the filesystem from SQL will defeat some of the purposes of a database (mainly having data stored in a structured way).

So I would recommend following the advice of Dustin and use a tool like BCP or any other data dumper.