use the -i flag.

if you are using 2005, better to use sqlcmd instead of osql.  osql is deprecated.

agreed.  wasn't thinking of that case. 

usually what you see is the TOP 100 PERCENT hack which is totally indefensible.

you can also use bcp.exe with the queryout option, which would be my preferred method.

ORDER BY should never be in a view definition. 

a view returns a set, and a sets are unordered. 

if you want the result to be ordered, put ORDER BY...

now that's a war I could get into! 

http://qntm.org/pointnine

who knew?  apparently BR is flypaper for geeks.

yes, it is truly amazing what geeks can get so worked up about. 

I tried to explain those hot feelings around banker's rounding to my wife, and was met with...

there's one other option here but I've never tried it - apparently you can export directly from SQL to Excel using OPENROWSET:

http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=49926

any technology can be misused.

that's not a reason not to use it.  just be careful not to misuse it. 

that works for importing data.

for exporting data, you have to use BCP or SSIS.

I prefer to store files on the filesystem, and just the location of the file in sql server.

beware that the DDL will be split across multiple rows in syscomments if the proc is more than 4000 chars.

this is very dangerous from a security perspective.  anyone with perms to execute this proc can wreak all sorts of havoc.

you might want to read this: http://www.sommarskog.se/dynamic_sql.html

The alternative to a cursor in tsql is to use a set based method to get the work done.  It's not always possible, but usually is.

Other alternatives are to use...

no worries, I'm not insulted at all!  

and yes you did answer it, thanks.