The technique from this article doesn't seem to retain the correct data types from the database.

For example a number (data type varchar in SQL) from the SQL Output grid with a leading zero, once copied into Excel with loose it's leading Zero as it will be converted to Number.

Even if you format the whole spreadsheet to text before you copy the results, its will then mean real numbers are converted as text and you can't do any more sums in Excel.

This means this technique is not really usefull as a fully automated technique. You will have to spend some time setting the Excel column cell data types acordinly. Which is a requirement from most of us i guess.

However using the SQL Server data export functionality (right click on a table, "export") will retain column names and data types. And is really as automated as running the code from the article. I would say even more !

Excel formatting bit is usefull though and the stored procedure / use of schema an eye opener.

thanks