Go to Tools/Options, the settings are under Query Results/SQL Server/Results to Grid.

An illustration is attached.

With SQL Server Express your best option would be to design a client application that will monitor the file system and then insert the file into the database. Especially so,...

Well, if you're passing data to Excel on a regular basis, you could also add a linked server pointing to the Excel workbook, or use SSIS/DTS to copy data to...

Trunkating people is the domain of the Sopranos.

😉

Formatting is done by the client application, and - as you've already seen - there are differences between how data is displayed in EM and QA.

Anyway, this does not affect...

What exactly are you searching for?

Using wildcards the way you've shown in your post will return results containing words beginning with "taho", which means your results were expected.

Also note that...

Might be a GUI bug - I'm not sure.

Try saving the result to a CSV file, and open/import that in Excel.

Consider creating a new table and copying data from the old table in batches (e.g. 1000 rows at a time) or use SSIS to copy data to the new table.

After...

What are you using to build the XML? Assuming you're using FOR XML - are you also using the TYPE directive?

Your XML didn't make it accross. Can you make it accessible on a URL?

Using T-SQL you'd have to loop through all the files and import one at at time.

IMHO, you'd be much better off designing a client application instead. This way you can...

Please, explain in more details what your business requirement is (rather than telling us *how* you want to solve the problem).

There's also a serious flaw in your logic. For instance...

Please, post DDL and sample data - a script that we can use to reproduce the tables and the data, and also provide a sample of expected results.

Yes, explicitly cast (or convert) the source values to the destination data type. Never rely on implicit conversions, better yet avoid them like the plague. SQL Server is not as...

You can reference the current query as a derived table in your main query.

For a more accurate answer, please, provide more information regarding your actual business requirements.