SQL SERVER – Export Data From SQL Server to Microsoft Excel Datasheet

Question: How to Export Data From SQL Server to Microsoft Excel Datasheet?

Answer: 

Enable Ad Hoc Distributed Queries. Run following code in SQL Server Management Studio – Query Editor.

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

Create Excel Spreadsheet in root directory c:\contact.xls (Make sure you name it contact.xls). Open spreadsheet, on the first tab of Sheet1, create two columns with FirstName, LastName. Alternatively, you can download sample Spreadsheet from here.

Run following code in SQL Server Management Studio – Query Editor.

USE [AdventureWorks];
GO
INSERT INTO OPENROWSET ('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0', 'Excel 8.0;Database=c:\contact.xls;',
'SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]')
SELECT TOP 5 FirstName, LastName
FROM Person.Contact
GO

Open contact.xls spreadsheet you will see first five records of the Person.Contact inserted into the first two columns.

Make sure your spreadsheet is closed during this operation. If it is open, it may throw an error. You can change your spreadsheet name as well name of the Sheet1 to your desired name.

Let me know what you think of this blog post. It is very short but indeed a very effective query. I have been using it for a while and it works just fine.

Reference : Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)