Extracting binary data from SQL Server

In this recipe, we will extract binary content from SQL Server and save it back to individual files in the filesystem.

Getting ready

For this recipe, we will use the table we created in the previous recipe, Inserting binary data into SQL Server, to extract files. Feel free to use your own tables that have VARBINARY(MAX) columns; just ensure you change the table name in the script.

In addition to our SampleBLOB table, we will create an empty table with a single VARBINARY(MAX) table. We will use this for facilitating the creation of a format file we need for exporting binary data out of SQL Server using bcp.

USE SampleDB 
GO
IF OBJECT_ID('EmptyBLOB') IS NOT NULL 
    DROP TABLE EmptyBLOB
GO
CREATE TABLE EmptyBLOB
(
    BLOBStuff VARBINARY(MAX) 
)

How to do it...

These are the steps to extract binary data from SQL Server.

1. Open the PowerShell ISE. Go to Start | Accessories | Windows PowerShell | Windows PowerShell ISE.
2. Import the SQLPS module as follows...