Appending to file with BCP

I found an interesting tip about BCP (the SQL Server command line tool) on the MSDN Forums

While exporting data from SQL Server to a file using BCP, it always overwrites the contents of the file specified in command if it already exists or creates a new file but it cannot append.

If ever you need the output of a query appended to the info in a existing data file, use an intermediary file to manage the updation of the data file -

Exec master..xp_cmdshell 'bcp "select name from sysobjects" queryout "c:\tempexportfile.txt" -c -T -SYourServerName'
Exec master..xp_cmdshell 'type "c:\tempexportfile.txt" >> "c:\mainexportfile.txt"

Also see:
Exporting to Excel with bcp

Comments

  1. Anonymous3/10/2012 03:44:00 AM

    Excellent! Thanks, you saved my day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown8/27/2019 03:15:00 AM

    My result set doesn't have a header line (but it does when I use it natively). is there a way to turn on headings?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown12/01/2020 06:29:00 AM

    Except this doesn't work with unicode...

    ReplyDelete

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