I am using SQL Server Management Studio.
I wish to save the results of a query to an excel file.
I choose "save as" and then save to CSV file which I can open in excel. All good except I am missing column headers, any ideas how I get them exported?
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Another possibility is to use the clipboard to copy and paste the results directly into Excel. Just be careful with General type Excel columns, as they can sometimes have unpredictable results, depending on your data. CTL-A
anywhere in the result grid, and then right-click:
If you have trouble with Excel's General format doing undesired conversions, select the blank columns in Excel before you paste and change the format to "text".
Try the Export Wizard. In this example I select a whole table, but you can just as easily specify a query:
(you can also specify a query here)
The same problem exists in Visual Studio, here's how to fix it there:
Go to:
Tools > Options > SQL Server Tools > Transact-SQL Editor > Query Results > Results To Grid
Now click the check box to true: "Include column headers when copying or saving the results"
Got here when looking for a way to make SSMS properly escape CSV separators when exporting results.
Guess what? - this is actually an option, and it is unchecked by default. So by default, you get broken CSV files (and may not even realize it, esp. if your export is large and your data doesn't have commas normally) - and you have to go in and click a checkbox so that your CSVs export correctly!
To me, this seems like a monumentally stupid design choice and an apt metaphor for Microsoft's approach to software in general ("broken by default, requires meaningless ritualistic actions to make trivial functionality work").
But I will gladly donate $100 to a charity of respondent's choice if someone can give me one valid real-life reason for this option to exist (i.e., an actual scenario where it was useful).
In SQL Server 2014 Management Studio the setting is at:
Tools > Options > Query Results > SQL Server > Results to Text > Include column headers in the result set.
The settings which has been advised to change in @Diego's accepted answer might be good if you want to set this option permanently for all future query sessions that you open within SQL Server Management Studio(SSMS). This is usually not the case. Also, changing this setting requires restarting SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) application. This is again a 'not-so-nice' experience if you've many unsaved open query session windows and you are in the middle of some debugging.
SQL Server gives a much slick option of changing it on per session basis which is very quick, handy and convenient. I'm detailing the steps below using query options window:
Query Options...
at the bottom of the context menu as shown below:Results
> Grid
in the left navigation pane. Check the Include column headers when copying or saving the results
check box in right pane as shown below:That's it. Your current session will honour your settings with immediate effect without restarting SSMS. Also, this setting won't be propagated to any future session. Effectively changing this setting on a per session basis is much less noisy.
I also face the same issue. When I used right click in the query window and select Query Options. But header rows does not show up in output CSV file.
Then I logoff the server, login again and run the script. Then it worked.
At least in SQL Server 2012, you can right click in the query window and select Query Options. From there you can select Include Headers for grid and/or text and have the Save As work the way you want it without restarting SSMS.
You'll still need to change it in Tools->Options in the menu bar to have new query windows use those settings by default.
Select your results by clicking in the top left corner, right click and select "Copy with Headers". Paste in excel. Done!
Source: Stackoverflow.com