How to export data as CSV format from SQL Server using sqlcmd?

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\"
         


        

Answer 1

sqlcmd -S myServer -d myDB -E -o "MyData.txt" ^
    -Q "select bar from foo" ^
    -W -w 999 -s","

The last line contains CSV-specific options.

• -W   remove trailing spaces from each individual field
• -s","   sets the column seperator to the comma (,)
• -w 999   sets the row width to 999 chars

scottm's answer is very close to what I use, but I find the -W to be a really nice addition: I needn't trim whitespace when I consume the CSV elsewhere.

Also see the MSDN sqlcmd reference. It puts the /? option's output to shame.