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

Usually sqlcmd comes with bcp utility (as part of mssql-tools) which exports into CSV by default.

Usage:

bcp {dbtable | query} {in | out | queryout | format} datafile

For example:

bcp.exe MyTable out data.csv

---

To dump all tables into corresponding CSV files, here is the Bash script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Script to dump all tables from SQL Server into CSV files via bcp.
# @file: bcp-dump.sh
server="sql.example.com" # Change this.
user="USER" # Change this.
pass="PASS" # Change this.
dbname="DBNAME" # Change this.
creds="-S '$server' -U '$user' -P '$pass' -d '$dbname'"
sqlcmd $creds -Q 'SELECT * FROM sysobjects sobjects' > objects.lst
sqlcmd $creds -Q 'SELECT * FROM information_schema.routines' > routines.lst
sqlcmd $creds -Q 'sp_tables' | tail -n +3 | head -n -2 > sp_tables.lst
sqlcmd $creds -Q 'SELECT name FROM sysobjects sobjects WHERE xtype = "U"' | tail -n +3 | head -n -2 > tables.lst

for table in $( $table.desc && \
  bcp $table out $table.csv -S $server -U $user -P $pass -d $dbname -c
done