-- Writing to a text file from a stored procedure
Author Nigel Rivett
The are several methods of creating text files from SQL Server.
osql
bcp
redirection commands
sp_MakeWebTask
Com object calls
Remember that in all cases the path of the output file will be relative to the server - not to the clIEnt on which the application is running.
osql.
This example will just output master..sysobjects to the file c:\osqloutput.txt.
declare @cmd varchar(1000)
select @cmd = 'osql -U-P -S -Q"select * from master..sysobjects" -o"c:\osqloutput.txt" -w500'
exec master..xp_cmdshell @cmd
bcp
bcp very fast and easy to use for just dumping a table out - can be used against a vIEw too.
master..xp_cmdshell 'bcp master..sysobjects out c:\file.bcp -S-U -P -c '
redirection commands
You will need to create the data to be output as in dynamic sql statements
The first command here creates or overwrites the file - the rest append to the file.
exec master..xp_cmdshell 'echo hello > c:\file.txt'
exec master..xp_cmdshell 'echo appended data >> c:\file.txt'
exec master..xp_cmdshell 'echo more data >> c:\file.txt'
will generate a file containing
hello
appended data
more data
sp_MakeWebTask
This is for creating Html code from a query
Com object calls
Using sp_oa... system stored procedures and creating com objects or existing applications
you can probably do whatevr you wish - but you should probably ask whether SQL Server is
the right place to control this.
