How to use TAB as column separator in SQLCMD

Question

SQLCMD supports the -s parameter to specify the column separator, but I couldn't figure how how to represent the tab (CHAR(9)) character. I have tried the following but both don't work:

sqlcmd -S ServerName -E -Q"select * from mytable" -s"\t" -o results.txt
sqlcmd -S ServerName -E -Q"select * from mytable" -s'\t' -o results.txt

Any ideas how to do this in SQLCMD?

Answer 1

In a batch file, putting a tab between the double quotes works.

sqlcmd -S ServerName -E -Q"select * from mytable" -s"   " -o results.txt

to do the same in a PowerShell file use escaped double quotes wrapped around an escaped tab

sqlcmd -S ServerName -E -Q"select * from mytable" -s `"`t`" -o results.txt

Answer 2

It's difficult to get unformatted results from SQLCMD.

If you want to create a tab-delimited output file, BCP might be a better bet:

bcp "select * from mytable" queryout results.txt -S server -T -c

Answer 3

Found a good answer here: SQLCMD outfile as tab delimited text file

1. Open Notepad
2. Paste this: sqlcmd -S (local) -E -s"<TAB>" -Q "select * from sys.dm_exec_query_stats" -o MyOutput.txt -h-1 -W
3. Highlight <TAB>, then hit the Tab key
4. Save the file as MyBatch.bat
5. Run MyBatch.bat

Answer 4

I've tried numerous times to pass the actual TAB character in to SQLCMD, and I simply can't get it to take it. My favorite work-around to-date is to pass SQLCMD the ASCII "Unit Separator", which is hex 0x1F, and can be entered on the command line by typing Ctrl-_ (control underscore, which on a US keyboard becomes ctrl-shift-'-' (the '-' next to the '0' on the top row of the keyboard).

The advantage of using the 'Unit Separator' is that is is HIGHLY unlikely to be present in text of any description, and was designed specifically for this purpose (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delimiter)

Having got SQLCMD to do that for me, I then pipe it's output though a Unix-style translate command as:

tr '\037' '\t'

The \037 is octal for the 'Unit Separator', and \t represents the tab character, 'tr' will translate BOTH of these for us, we don't need to rely on any quoting tricks in our scripts or shells.

To get 'tr' on windows, you can install the CoreUtils package from GnuWin32 (see http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/coreutils.htm) or go heavy-weight and install a full Unix environment such as Cygwin (http://cygwin.com/).

Putting the two together we get:

sqlcmd ... -h-1 -W -k -r1 -s^_ ... | tr '\037' '\t'

and this will give you your output with tabs.

Look up the other options I've used above, they're essential for trying to get clean output from SQLCMD (in order; no headers, trim white-space, CRLF to spaces, errors to STDERR (not your output file!) and the '^_' is how the Unit Separator will appear on the command line). You'll also need to add "SET NOCOUNT ON;" to your query or sql script, otherwise you'll get the row-count as a trialling message appearing in your output!

Answer 5

A similar answer to one posted above, but it's simpler in a way that I think is significant.

1. Open your text editor
2. Press Tab
3. Highlight the chunk of whitespace (the tab) created
4. Copy and paste that into the spot in your SQL command

Even though this tab is represented as a wide chunk of whitespace, it is a single character.

The other answer had some unnecessary stuff about pasting the whole command with "<TAB>" in it. I think that throws people off (it certainly threw me off).

Answer 6

To work in the Command Prompt window instead in batch file, this is the only way that I have found to solve it:

sqlcmd -S ServerName -E -d database_Name -Q"select col1, char(9), col2, char(9), col3, char(9), col4, char(9), col5 from mytable" -o results.txt -W -w 1024 -s "" -m 1

Answer 7

Use dynamic sql with CHAR(9):

SET @cmd ='SQLCMD -S MyServer -d MyDatabase -E -W -Q "SELECT * FROM MyTable" -s"' + CHAR(9) + '" -o "MyFilePath.txt"'

Answer 8

To achieve this using sqlcmd you need to use the Tab character like so: \t An example query exporting a single sql database table into a text file using a tab delimiter is as follows:

sqlcmd -S ServerName -d databaseTableName -Q "SELECT * FROM TABLE_NAME" -o C:\backups\tab_delimiter_bakup.txt -s"\t"

Answer 9

tldr: use ALT+009 the ascii tab code for the separator character

In the example, replace {ALTCHAR} with ALT+009 (hold the ALT key and enter the digits 009)

sqlcmd -E -d tempdb -W -s "{ALTCHAR}" -o junk.txt -Q "select 1 c1,2 c2,3 c3"

Edit junk.txt. Tabs will be between columns.

For other command line options:

sqlcmd -?

Note: The shell converts the ALT char to ^I, but if you try the command by typing -s "^I", you won't get the same results.