Export data with the OUTPUT statement

Use the OUTPUT statement to export query results, tables, or views from your database.

The OUTPUT statement is useful when compatibility is an issue because it can write out the result set of a SELECT statement in several different file formats. You can use the default output format, or you can specify the file format on each OUTPUT statement. Interactive SQL can execute a command file containing multiple OUTPUT statements.

The default Interactive SQL output format is specified on the Import/Export tab of the Interactive SQL Options window (accessed by choosing Tools » Options in Interactive SQL).

Use the Interactive SQL OUTPUT statement when you want to:

export all or part of a table or view in a format other than text
automate the export process using a command file

Impact on the database

If you have a choice between using the OUTPUT statement, UNLOAD statement, or UNLOAD TABLE statement, choose the UNLOAD TABLE statement for performance reasons.

There are performance impacts associated with exporting large amounts of data with the OUTPUT statement. Use the OUTPUT statement on the same computer as the server if possible to avoid sending large amounts of data across the network.

For more information, see OUTPUT statement [Interactive SQL].

Example

The following example exports the data from the Employees table in the SQL Anywhere sample database to a .txt file named Employees.txt.

SELECT * FROM Employees;
OUTPUT TO Employees.txt
    FORMAT TEXT;

The following example exports data from the Employees table in the SQL Anywhere sample database to a new table in a SQL Anywhere database named mydatabase.db

SELECT * FROM Employees;
OUTPUT USING 'driver=SQL Anywhere 12;UID=dba;PWD=sql;DBF=C:\Tobedeleted\mydatabase.db;CON=''''' 
    INTO "dba"."newcustomers" 
    CREATE TABLE ON;

To export data to an Excel file using the OUTPUT statement (Interactive SQL)

In Interactive SQL, connect to a SQL Anywhere database.

Execute an OUTPUT statement using the READONLY clause. For example:

SELECT * FROM SalesOrders;
OUTPUT USING 'Driver=Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls);
DBQ=c:\\test\\sales.xls;
READONLY=0' INTO "newSalesData";

A new Excel file, named sales.xls, is created. It will contain a worksheet called newSalesData.

Note that the Microsoft Excel driver is a 32-bit driver so the 32-bit version of Interactive SQL is required for this example.

To export data to a CSV file

In Interactive SQL, connect to the SQL Anywhere database.

Execute an OUTPUT statement with the clauses FORMAT TEXT, QUOTE '"', and WITH COLUMN NAMES to create a comma-delimited format with the column names in the first line of the file. String values will be enclosed with quotation marks.

SELECT * FROM SalesOrders; 
OUTPUT TO 'c:\\test\\sales.csv' 
    FORMAT TEXT
    QUOTE '"'
    WITH COLUMN NAMES;

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