Question

I have a script that does various things and the end result is one large table. I was wondering how I could export this final table to a new Excel file (with column headers as well).

I would need to do this within the script.

Answer 1

This is by far the best post for exporting to excel from SQL:

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

To quote from user madhivanan,

Apart from using DTS and Export wizard, we can also use this query to export data from SQL Server2000 to Excel

Create an Excel file named testing having the headers same as that of table columns and use these queries

1 Export data to existing EXCEL file from SQL Server table

insert into OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0', 
    'Excel 8.0;Database=D:\testing.xls;', 
    'SELECT * FROM [SheetName$]') select * from SQLServerTable

2 Export data from Excel to new SQL Server table

select * 
into SQLServerTable FROM OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0', 
    'Excel 8.0;Database=D:\testing.xls;HDR=YES', 
    'SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]')

3 Export data from Excel to existing SQL Server table (edited)

Insert into SQLServerTable Select * FROM OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0', 
    'Excel 8.0;Database=D:\testing.xls;HDR=YES', 
    'SELECT * FROM [SheetName$]')

4 If you dont want to create an EXCEL file in advance and want to export data to it, use

EXEC sp_makewebtask 
    @outputfile = 'd:\testing.xls', 
    @query = 'Select * from Database_name..SQLServerTable', 
    @colheaders =1, 
    @FixedFont=0,@lastupdated=0,@resultstitle='Testing details'

(Now you can find the file with data in tabular format)

5 To export data to new EXCEL file with heading(column names), create the following procedure

create procedure proc_generate_excel_with_columns
(
    @db_name    varchar(100),
    @table_name varchar(100),   
    @file_name  varchar(100)
)
as

--Generate column names as a recordset
declare @columns varchar(8000), @sql varchar(8000), @data_file varchar(100)
select 
    @columns=coalesce(@columns+',','')+column_name+' as '+column_name 
from 
    information_schema.columns
where 
    table_name=@table_name
select @columns=''''''+replace(replace(@columns,' as ',''''' as '),',',',''''')

--Create a dummy file to have actual data
select @data_file=substring(@file_name,1,len(@file_name)-charindex('\',reverse(@file_name)))+'\data_file.xls'

--Generate column names in the passed EXCEL file
set @sql='exec master..xp_cmdshell ''bcp " select * from (select '+@columns+') as t" queryout "'+@file_name+'" -c'''
exec(@sql)

--Generate data in the dummy file
set @sql='exec master..xp_cmdshell ''bcp "select * from '+@db_name+'..'+@table_name+'" queryout "'+@data_file+'" -c'''
exec(@sql)

--Copy dummy file to passed EXCEL file
set @sql= 'exec master..xp_cmdshell ''type '+@data_file+' >> "'+@file_name+'"'''
exec(@sql)

--Delete dummy file 
set @sql= 'exec master..xp_cmdshell ''del '+@data_file+''''
exec(@sql)

After creating the procedure, execute it by supplying database name, table name and file path:

EXEC proc_generate_excel_with_columns 'your dbname', 'your table name','your file path'

Its a whomping 29 pages but that is because others show various other ways as well as people asking questions just like this one on how to do it.

Follow that thread entirely and look at the various questions people have asked and how they are solved. I picked up quite a bit of knowledge just skimming it and have used portions of it to get expected results.

To update single cells

A member also there Peter Larson posts the following:
I think one thing is missing here. It is great to be able to Export and Import to Excel files, but how about updating single cells? Or a range of cells?

This is the principle of how you do manage that

update OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0', 
'Excel 8.0;Database=c:\test.xls;hdr=no', 
'SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$b7:b7]') set f1 = -99

You can also add formulas to Excel using this:

update OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0', 
'Excel 8.0;Database=c:\test.xls;hdr=no', 
'SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$b7:b7]') set f1 = '=a7+c7'

Exporting with column names using T-SQL

Member Mladen Prajdic also has a blog entry on how to do this here

References: http://www.sqlteam.com (btw this is an excellent blog / forum for anyone looking to get more out of SQL Server). For error referencing I used this

Errors that may occur

If you get the following error:

OLE DB provider ‘Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0’ cannot be used for
distributed queries

Then run this:

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO
sp_configure 'Ad Hoc Distributed Queries', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO