Have you ever needed to export the results of a SQL Server query to an Excel spreadsheet? If so, you may have encountered some challenges in the process. In this article, we will discuss two methods that will allow you to easily export query results to Excel.

Method 1: Highlight, Drag and Drop

The first method involves highlighting the query results in the SQL Query Analyzer and then dragging and dropping them into an Excel spreadsheet. Here are the step-by-step instructions:

1. Open an Excel spreadsheet where you want to place the results.
2. In the SQL Query Analyzer, click on “Query” in the menu bar.
3. Select “Results in Text” from the dropdown menu.
4. Make sure that the “Tab delimited” option is selected in the “Results Output Format” dialog box.
5. Click on “Print column headers(*)”.
6. Click “OK”.
7. Use the Object Browser to generate a select statement for the desired tables and columns.
8. Press F5 to run the query.
9. Click anywhere in the Results Pane.
10. Press CTRL + A to highlight the result set.
11. Drag and drop the result set into the Excel spreadsheet.

Using this technique, you can export the output of multiple queries into Excel in one shot. Once the data is in Excel, you can format it as needed.

Method 2: Save Results to Excel

The second method allows you to directly save the query results to an Excel spreadsheet using the SQL Query Analyzer. Here’s how:

1. Click on “Tools” in the menu bar.
2. Select “Options”.
3. In the Options dialog box, click on the “Results” tab.
4. Select the “Tab delimited” option in the “Results Output Format” window.
5. Select “Print column headers(*)”.
6. Click “OK”.
7. Click on “Query” in the menu bar.
8. Select “Results to File” (or use the shortcut CTRL+ SHIFT+F).
9. Type in your query in the Editor Pane or use the Object Browser to generate a query.
10. Press F5 to execute the query.
11. In the Save Results dialog box, enter the name of your output file with the .xls extension.
12. Click “Save”.

Once the query is executed, you can open the Excel file using Windows Explorer. You can also format the data in Excel as needed.

These two methods provide simple and efficient ways to export SQL Server query results to Excel. Whether you prefer to highlight, drag and drop or save directly to Excel, you can now easily share your query results with others in a familiar and accessible format.

Thank you for reading and happy exporting!