The Environment:
Solaris 10, /bin/sh script using sqsh and freetds to talk to an MS SQL Server
The (TLDR) Problem:
I need sqsh to ignore a dollar sign and pass it through to MS SQL.
The Background:
I'm writing some code that dynamically builds SQL to alter existing indexes but when it runs, I get errors:
Msg 2727, Level 11, State 1
Server 'HOST\SERVER', Line 1
Cannot find index 'foo'.
I dig around and see that there is no index named foo but there is one named foo$bar.
The built-up input SQL input looks fine...
% grep 'foo' input.sql
alter index [foo$bar] on ...
...and running this SQL through a New Query session or a third party app succeeds. However, the results when passed through sqsh don't see past that dollar sign:
% sqsh -e -i input.sql -o output.sql
% grep 'foo' output.sql
1> alter index [foo] on ...
...which suggests it's interpreting $bar as a variable or something.
Anyone know how to get sqsh to escape a dollar sign or allow one to pass through? I've tried various combinations of quotes and backslashes.
Help me, stackoverlow. You're my only hope.
Another option is to disable buffer expansion altogether by executing:
\set expand=0
on the sqsh prompt, or specify this command in the .sqshrc file, or start sqsh with the parameter
sqsh -e -i input.sql -o output.sql -Lexpand=0
If expansion is on (default) then sqsh will substitute the variable $bar with its contents.
Reference manual on page 5 states: "Note that in order to prevent the expansion of a variable use either single quotes, or two \’s, like thus:
1> \echo \\$name
$name
So, I believe that to prevent sqsh to substitute $bar with an empty string, you have to write something like:
alter index [foo\\$bar] on ...
alter index ['foo$bar'] on ...
To test it you can try first with SELECT 'foo\\$bar' = 1 or something similar.
Related
I'm working on a batch file that will import data into the PostgreSQL database I use for testing. The batch file drops all of the databases, then recreates/reloads them from a previous dump file made from our production database. However, I sometimes run into a problem if I've accidentally left a connection open to that server/database. The "drop" portion fails because there are still users connected (me).
I've been trying to "tweak" my batch file with a command to disconnect all users from the database(s) prior to issuing the command to drop them, but I can't get that part (disconnection) to work. I've taken the disconnect code from another SO question How to drop a PostgreSQL database if there are active connections to it?, and I've been looking at other questions like How to execute postgres' sql queries from batch file? for help with the syntax.
I've also seen the "alternate" syntax for a not equal operator on the 9.2. Comparison Functions and Operators page of the official PostgreSQL documentation, but that seems to also be using "special" characters that would require escaping, so I'm not sure how to proceed.
At this point, the batch file looks like this:
#Echo OFF
SET PGPASSWORD=PASSWORD
cd /D "C:\PostgreSQL\bin"
psql.exe -h localhost -p 5432 -d postgres -U username -c 'SELECT pg_terminate_backend(pg_stat_activity.pid) FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE pg_stat_activity.datname = ''betadb'' AND pid \<\> pg_backend_pid();'
dropdb.exe -h localhost -p 5432 -U username betadb
psql.exe -h localhost -p 5432 -d postgres -U username < "C:\PostgresSQL\prodserverdump.sql"
Everything else works except for the pg_terminate_backend query. Every time I run that, I get strange errors indicating a problem with a path, or a file, or something else like that. I believe I've narrowed the problem down to the "not equal" operator (<>) in the query, but I can't seem to find the correct way to escape this so it doesn't try to pipe in data from a file that's not being defined.
I've tried using single backslashes (\) and double backslashes (\\), in front of one or both of the characters in the operator, but that doesn't appear to work. Is there a special way to escape the "greater than" and "less than" characters for the -c command line option in psql?
Using a combination of suggestions and "trial & error", I believe I found the correct syntax for executing this particular SQL command through a batch file.
Trying the "alternative" not equal operator (!=), I was still getting errors. They were different errors (it was giving me some nonsense about too many parameters), but it still wouldn't execute.
Using #Compo's suggestion from the comments, I then tried to enclose the entire SELECT statement in double quotes instead of single quotes. Still not quite there.
Finally, I removed the "extra" single quotes I was using around the database names from before. The query appears to have executed properly.
The final result looks like this:
#Echo OFF
SET PGPASSWORD=PASSWORD
cd /D "C:\PostgreSQL\bin"
psql.exe -h localhost -p 5432 -d postgres -U username -c "SELECT pg_terminate_backend(pg_stat_activity.pid) FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE pg_stat_activity.datname = 'betadb' AND pid != pg_backend_pid();"
dropdb.exe -h localhost -p 5432 -U username betadb
psql.exe -h localhost -p 5432 -d postgres -U username < "C:\PostgresSQL\prodserverdump.sql"
I suppose I had assumed that, because all of the examples I had found were using single quotes to surround the SQL statement, that's what I had to use. Apparently, that assumption was incorrect.
Regardless, it all seems to be working correctly now. Hope this helps someone else who's looking to accomplish something similar.
I am using below command to write data to csv file in isql
$ISQL -S DSA1_PROD -U emer_r_gh5432 -X
Query -
Select * from SecDb..LoginOwnerTb where SvrId= 45566 and OwnerRitsId = '1001167635';
OUTPUT TO '/tmp/sometable.csv' FORMAT ASCII DELIMITED BY ';' QUOTE '';
go
it says
Server 'ABC', Line 1:
Incorrect syntax near ';'.
Please help
NOTE: I'm assuming you're working with Sybase ASE and the isql command line tool. There may be other ways to accomplish what you're trying to do when going against the SQLAnywhere, IQ and/or Advantage database products ... *shrug* ...
The OUTPUT TO clause is used with the dbisql GUI tool.
To perform a somewhat-similar OUTPUT operation with the isql command line tool:
-- once logged in via isql ...
-- to write to new file; to overwrite existing file:
select ....
go > /path/to/local/file/accessible/by/user/running/isql
-- to append to existing file:
select ...
go >> /path/to/local/file/accessible/by/user/running/isql
To set the column delimiter you can use the -s flag when invoking isql from the command line, eg:
# set the column delimiter to a semi-colon:
$ isql ... -s ';' ...
# set the column delimiter to a pipe:
$ isql ... -s '|' ...
Keep in mind that the output will still be generated using fixed-width columns, with each column's width determined by either a) the column's datatype 'width' or b) the column's title/label width, whichever is wider.
I'm not aware of any way to perform the following with the isql command line tool:
designate a column delimiter on-the-fly while inside a isql session
designate a quote character
remove extra spaces (ie, ouput data in true delimited format as opposed to fixed-width format)
To generate true delimited files you have a few options:
see if the dbisql GUI tool serves your purpose [I don't use dbisql so I'm *assuming* the OUTPUT TO clause works as expected]
use the bcp (command line) utility to place the data into a delimited file [bcp options, and how to handle subsets of tables, is a much larger discussion, ie, too much to address in this response]
see if you can find another (3rd party) tool that can extract the desired data set to a delimited file
I was wondering if anyone can help.
I have a number of queries in SQL (all in separate *.sql files). I wanted to know if there is a way to run these queries automatically or mass run them to be saved to either a csv or txt file?
Also, I have come variables within these queries which will need to be amended on a weekly bases before the queries are run.
Thanks.
KJ
Could you please provide some additional help in relation to the variables? Previously I would declare and set variables as:
DECLARE #TW_FROM DATETIME
DECLARE #TW_TO DATETIME
SET #TW_FROM = '2015-11-16 00:00:00';
SET #TW_TO = '2015-11-22 23:00:00';
How do I do this using sqlcmd?
Yes, you can use sqlcmd to do this.
First of all - variables. You can refer to your variables in the .sql files using $(variablename) wherever you want to substitue the variable. For example,
use $(dbname);
select $(columnname) from table1 where column= '$(var1)'
You then call sqlcmd with the following command (note the argument -v variables)
sqlcmd -S servername -d database -i "yoursqlfile.sql" -v dbname="database" columnname="column" var1="Fred"
In order to output this to a file, you tag > filename.txt on the end
sqlcmd -S servername -d database -i "yoursqlfile.sql" -v dbname="database" columnname="column" var1="Fred" > filename.txt
If you want to output to a csv, you can also specify the delimiter using the argument -s (note the idfference with the capital S for server). So now we have
sqlcmd -S servername -d database -s "," -i "yoursqlfile.sql" -v dbname="database" columnname="column" var1="Fred" > filename.csv
If you want to output several commands to the same csv or txt file, use >> instead of > as it add to teh bottom of the file, rather than replacing it.
sqlcmd -S servername -d database -s "," -i "yoursqlfile.sql" -v dbname="database" columnname="column" var1="Fred" >> filename.csv
To run this for several scripts, you can put the statements in a batch file, and then change the variables every week.
You could write a batch file that uses sqlcmd:
MSDN sqlcmd
That will allow you to call script files in a loop and output the results to a file.
Convert your current scrips to a Stored Procedure.
You can then pass your variables to that and run the query.
If you have SQL Server agent available (SQL standard or better) you can use this to automate the running of the stored procedures.
Otherwise the same can be achieved with Task Scheduler in windows.
As for exporting to CSV this will be useful.
It depends on where your SQL Server is acutally running. It might be quite tricky to write anything to the location you want.
You could read about BCP.
My suggestion is:
Create an UDF (best is inline-UDF!) from all of your queries within your database. Than call them from EXCEL or any other fitting product. You might want to set up an Excel where all your queries are filled one on each Sheet automatically
i have looked all over the internet and cant seem to find a solution to this problem.
i am trying to output query results as a CSV through using a combination of sqlcmd and windows batch. here is what i have so far:
sqlcmd.exe -S %DBSERVER% -U %DBUSER% -P %DBPASS% -d %USERPREFIX% -Q "SELECT Username, UserDOB, UserGender FROM TABLE" -o %USERDATA%\%USERPREFIX%\FACT_BP.CSV -h-1 -s","
is there something i'm missing here? some setting that only looks at the first column of the query results?
any advice at all would be a huge help - i'm lost.
Here is the reference page from MSDN on SQLCMD.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms162773.aspx
I placed this command in a batch file in C:\temp as go.bat.
sqlcmd -S(local) -E -dmaster
-Q"select cast(name as varchar(16)), str(database_id,1,0), create_date from sys.databases"
-oc:\temp\sys.databases.csv -h-1 -s,
Notice I hard coded the file name and removed the "" around the field delimiter.
I get the expected output below.
Either the command does not like the system variables or something else is wrong. Please try my code as a base line test. It works for SQL 2012.
Also, the number of lines is always dumped to file. You must clear this out of the file. That is why I do not use SQLCMD for ETL.
Why not use BCP instead?
I have writing several articles on my website.
http://craftydba.com/?p=1584
I have a huge database which I want to dump out using BCP and then load it up elsewhere. I have done quite a bit of research on the Sybase version of BCP (being more familiar with the MSSQL one) and I see how to USE an Import file but I can't figure out for the life of me how to create one.
I am currently making my Sybase bcp out files of data like this:
bcp mytester.dbo.XTABLE out XTABLE.bcp -U sa -P mypass -T -n
and trying to import them back in like this:
bcp mytester.dbo.XTABLE in XTABLE.bcp -E -n -S Sybase_157 -U sa -P SyAdmin
Right now, the IN part gives me an error about IDENTITY_INSERT regardless of if the table has an identity or not:
Server Message: Sybase157 - Msg 7756, Level 16, State 1: Cannot use
'SET IDENTITY_INSERT' for table 'mytester.dbo.XTABLE' because the
table does not have the identity property.
I have often used the great info on this page for help, but this is the first time i've put in a question, so i humbly request any guidance you all can provide :)
In your BCP in, the -E flag tells bcp to take identity column values from the input file. I would try running it without that flag. fmt files in Sybase are a bit finicky, and I would try to avoid if possible. So as long as your schemas are the same between your systems the following command should work:
bcp mytester.dbo.XTABLE in XTABLE.bcp -n -S Sybase_157 -U sa -P SyAdmin
Also, the -T flag on your bcp out seems odd. I know SQLServer -T is a security setting, but in Sybase it indicates the max size of a text or image column, and is followed by a number..e.g -T 32000 (would be 32Kbytes)
But to answer the question in your title, if you run bcp out interactively (without specifying -c,-n, or -f) it will step through each column, prompting for information. At the end it will ask if you want to create a format file, and allow you to specify the name of the file.
For reference, here is the syntax and available flags:
http://infocenter.sybase.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.sybase.infocenter.dc30191.1550/html/utility/X14951.htm
And the chapter in the Utility Guide:
http://infocenter.sybase.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.sybase.infocenter.dc30191.1550/html/utility/BABGCCIC.htm