Exporting records to a text file

In this recipe, we will export records to a pipe-delimited text file in a SQL Server table.

Getting ready

For this recipe, choose a table with records that you want to export to a text file.

How to do it...

The following steps will import a text file into a SQL Server table:

1. Open PowerShell ISE as an administrator.
2. Import the SQLPS module as follows:

   #import SQL Server module
   Import-Module SQLPS -DisableNameChecking

3. Add the following script and run it:

   $instanceName = "localhost"
   $databaseName = "SampleDB"
   $filename = "C:\DATA\Customers.txt"
   $delimiter = "|"
   
   Invoke-SqlCmd -Query "SELECT * FROM SampleText" -ServerInstance $instanceName -Database $databaseName |
   Export-Csv -Delimiter $delimiter -NoType $fileName

Once the script finishes the execution, check the text file that was created.

How it works...

As with the import recipe, there are a few ways to export records to text files. Here are some of the ways to do this...