How to format SQLCMD output

Question

I am using below command line to run a SQL query using SQLCMD

sqlcmd -S Server -Q \"select top 100 * From people\" -d people -t 10 

The table h

Answer 1

This is how I isolated a scalar.

sqlcmd -S xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx,xxxxx -d MyDb -U myUser -P MyPassword -h -1 -W -Q "set NOCOUNT ON; select a from b where b.id='c'" 

Answer 2

Formatting issues usually pop up due to your console window. One solution is to output to the file and use notepad/your favorite editor:

sqlcmd -S myServer -d myDB -E -Q "select top 100 * From people" 
     -o "output.txt"

Answer 3

Answer

We can set the width of each column.

C:/> sqlcmd -S my_server

> :setvar SQLCMDMAXVARTYPEWIDTH 30
> :setvar SQLCMDMAXFIXEDTYPEWIDTH 30
> SELECT * from my_table
> go

We can also set it like this: sqlcmd -S my_server -y 30 -Y 30.

Details

SQLCMDMAXVARTYPEWIDTH (-y)

It limits the number of characters that are returned for the large variable length data type

SQLCMDMAXFIXEDTYPEWIDTH (-Y)

Limits the number of characters that are returned for the following data types

Note: setting -y has serious performance implications.

See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/tools/sqlcmd-utility