BCP Export to CSV w/Column Headers

• MostInterestingMan

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  December 16, 2010 at 1:13 pm

  #142781

  Hi,

  Is it possible to include column headers with BCP? Below is my BCP call except that the out file doesn't include headers. I have searched the web and can't find anything to point me in the right direction.

  DECLARE @bcpCmd VARCHAR(8000)

  SET @bcpCmd = 'bcp "select * from mydatabase.dbo.mytable" queryout f:/test.csv -c -t, -r -T -S myserver'

  EXEC master..xp_cmdshell @bcpCmd

  NOTE: The server I'm working with in SQL 2000 therefore I can't use SQLCMD. Also the solution have to be done programmably so using SSMS studio to export and save to CSV is not what I need.

  Thanks

  MCTS: BI 2008, MCITP: BI 2008
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• Mike John

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  December 16, 2010 at 1:44 pm

  #1263707

  The only way I have managed to achieve this with BCP is:

  Create a view

  The view should contain

  SELECT 'col1name' as col1name, 'col2name' as col2name etc

  UNION ALL -- all is important to avoid a sort

  SELECT -- all your columns from whatever table

  Then use BCP export the view.

  This does rely on the fact that the results of the union will have the first row first - which strictly speaking they may not be, but with it constructed as above I have never seen it incorrect.

  Add a function round each column to quote qualify if the column contains a quote, comma, NL etc and you have a very fast and really easy way of exporting to csv.

  Each column will need to be char or varchar - or cast to the correct type as well otherwise the union will complain about data types.

  Hope that helps

  Mike

• MostInterestingMan

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  Points: 6291

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  December 17, 2010 at 12:46 pm

  #1264216

  Mike John (12/16/2010)

  ---

  The only way I have managed to achieve this with BCP is:

  Create a view

  The view should contain

  SELECT 'col1name' as col1name, 'col2name' as col2name etc

  UNION ALL -- all is important to avoid a sort

  SELECT -- all your columns from whatever table

  Then use BCP export the view.

  This does rely on the fact that the results of the union will have the first row first - which strictly speaking they may not be, but with it constructed as above I have never seen it incorrect.

  Add a function round each column to quote qualify if the column contains a quote, comma, NL etc and you have a very fast and really easy way of exporting to csv.

  Each column will need to be char or varchar - or cast to the correct type as well otherwise the union will complain about data types.

  Hope that helps

  Mike

  Thanks Mike. Your input pointed me in the right direction. Basically what I did was create two files and merge them. I created the bcp query results file without headers first and created another file will headers only using INFORMATION.SCHEMA. Thanks for your input - appreciated.

  MCTS: BI 2008, MCITP: BI 2008
  Stay Thirsty My Friends