SQL Server Management Studio 2012 - Export all tables of database as csv

Question

I have a database in SQL Server with a lot of tables and wish to export all tables in csv format. From a very similar question asked previously - Export from SQL Server 2012 to .CSV through Management Studio

Right click on your database in management studio and choose Tasks -> Export Data...

Follow a wizard, and in destination part choose 'Flat File Destination'. Type your file name and choose your options.

What I want is the capability to export all tables at once. The SQL Server Import and Export Wizard only permits one table at a time. This is pretty cumbersome, if you have a very big database. I think a simpler solution might involve writing a query, but not sure.

Answer 1

The export wizard allows only one at a time. I used the powershell script to export all my tables into csv. Please try this if it helps you.

$server = "SERVERNAME\INSTANCE"
$database = "DATABASE_NAME"
$tablequery = "SELECT schemas.name as schemaName, tables.name as tableName from sys.tables inner join sys.schemas ON tables.schema_id = schemas.schema_id"

#Delcare Connection Variables
$connectionTemplate = "Data Source={0};Integrated Security=SSPI;Initial Catalog={1};"
$connectionString = [string]::Format($connectionTemplate, $server, $database)
$connection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
$connection.ConnectionString = $connectionString

$command = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
$command.CommandText = $tablequery
$command.Connection = $connection

#Load up the Tables in a dataset
$SqlAdapter = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter
$SqlAdapter.SelectCommand = $command
$DataSet = New-Object System.Data.DataSet
$SqlAdapter.Fill($DataSet)
$connection.Close()



# Loop through all tables and export a CSV of the Table Data
foreach ($Row in $DataSet.Tables[0].Rows)
{
    $queryData = "SELECT * FROM [$($Row[0])].[$($Row[1])]"

    #Specify the output location of your dump file
    $extractFile = "C:\mssql\export\$($Row[0])_$($Row[1]).csv"

    $command.CommandText = $queryData
    $command.Connection = $connection

    $SqlAdapter = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter
    $SqlAdapter.SelectCommand = $command
    $DataSet = New-Object System.Data.DataSet
    $SqlAdapter.Fill($DataSet)
    $connection.Close()

    $DataSet.Tables[0]  | Export-Csv $extractFile -NoTypeInformation
}

Thanks

Answer 2

Instead of clicking Export Data, choose Generate Scripts. Select the tables you want, click next and click the Advanced button. The last option under General is Types of data to script. Chose Schema and data or just Data.

Answer 3

The answer by sree is great. For my db, because there are multiple schemas, I changed this:

$tablequery = "SELECT schemas.name as schemaName, tables.name as tableName from sys.tables inner join sys.schemas ON tables.schema_id = schemas.schema_id"

and then also

$queryData = "SELECT * FROM [$($Row[0])].[$($Row[1])]"

#Specify the output location of your dump file
$extractFile = "C:\mssql\export\$($Row[0])_$($Row[1]).csv"