Data To Flat files from single table

  • Hi i was trying to create flat file which as the following format

    10 firstname lastname

    10 Address1 Address2

    10 state Country

    20 firstname lastname

    20 Address1 Address2

    20 state Country

    30 firstname lastname

    30 Address1 Address2

    30 state Country

    number 10 belogs to first person information ,20 belongs to second person etc...

    all these records are sitting in one table in fallowing format

    10 firstname1 lastname1 Address1 Address2 state Country

    20 firstname2 lastname2 Address1 Address2 state Country

    30 firstname3 lastname3 Address1 Address2 state Country

    what iam thinking to use is UNIONall please give me ideas

  • You can try something like this. You many need to use convert if your non-id fields are of different data types.

    I can give you a more exact answer if you include the table DDL.

    SELECT id, col1, col2

    FROM (SELECT 1 as srt, id, firstname as col1, lastname as col2

    FROM address a1

    UNION

    SELECT 2 as srt, id, address1, address2

    FROM address a2

    UNION

    SELECT 3 as srt, id, state, country

    FROM address a3) x1

    ORDER BY id, srt;

    James Leeper
    Database Administrator
    WDS Global - Americas Region

  • hi ,

    Thanks for your reply ,i will try this

  • Hi james ,

    so i can create view like this on table and then bcp out to txt file .

  • If you use James' good tried'n'true method, be sure to save a bit on performance and use UNION ALL instead of just UNION. UNION does a "Distinct" in the background where UNION ALL does not. Also, there's no need for the outer SELECT... just add the ORDER BY after the last SELECT in the unioned SELECTs.

    That being said, if blazing speed is important, I wouldn't do it that way because it requires 3 full table scans to support the 3 SELECTs and an ORDER BY which is also expensive. Instead, I'd use a BCP format file that uses the \r (Carriage Return/Linefeed characters) to control the formatting of each row as if it were 3. It would use just one SELECT, no unions, and no sorts... it would just fly.

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.
    "Change is inevitable... change for the better is not".

    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)
    Intro to Tally Tables and Functions

  • Hi Jeff,

    YES you are right ,can you give me clear idea about carriage return format . that would be appreciable

  • amitaryan21 (11/5/2009)


    Hi Jeff,

    YES you are right ,can you give me clear idea about carriage return format . that would be appreciable

    Yes... lookup "BCP Format File" in Books Online and simply use \ r \ n (without the spaces) as the delimeter anywhere you want to end a line.

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.
    "Change is inevitable... change for the better is not".

    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)
    Intro to Tally Tables and Functions

  • There is another solution - a turbo-charged version of James' solution, which doesn't require any tedious messing around with format files:

    USE tempdb;

    GO

    -- Sample table

    CREATE TABLE dbo.SourceData

    (

    row_id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,

    first_name NVARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,

    last_name NVARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,

    address1 NVARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,

    address2 NVARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,

    state_name NVARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,

    country NVARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,

    );

    GO

    -- Test Data

    INSERT dbo.SourceData

    (row_id, first_name, last_name, address1, address2, state_name, country)

    SELECT 10, N'firstname1', N'lastname1', N'Address1', N'Address2', N'state', N'Country' UNION ALL

    SELECT 20, N'firstname1', N'lastname1', N'Address1', N'Address2', N'state', N'Country' UNION ALL

    SELECT 30, N'firstname1', N'lastname1', N'Address1', N'Address2', N'state', N'Country' UNION ALL

    SELECT 40, N'firstname1', N'lastname1', N'Address1', N'Address2', N'state', N'Country' UNION ALL

    SELECT 50, N'firstname1', N'lastname1', N'Address1', N'Address2', N'state', N'Country';

    GO

    -- Procedure to wrap the solution, simply to make the BCP call neat and easy

    CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.SourceDataExportFormat

    AS

    BEGIN

    SET NOCOUNT ON;

    -- This is amazingly fast

    SELECT SD.row_id, CA.column1, CA.column2

    FROM dbo.SourceData SD WITH (TABLOCK)

    CROSS

    APPLY (

    SELECT CONVERT(SQL_VARIANT, SD.first_name), CONVERT(SQL_VARIANT, SD.last_name) UNION ALL

    SELECT SD.address1, SD.address2 UNION ALL

    SELECT SD.state_name, SD.country

    )

    CA (column1, column2)

    ORDER BY

    SD.row_id ASC;

    END;

    GO

    EXECUTE dbo.SourceDataExportFormat;

    GO

    Paul

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