CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sql-serverformattingssms
Cade Roux
Cade Roux

Reputation: 89651

SSMS Results to Grid - CRLF not preserved in copy/paste - any better techniques?

When I have a result set in the grid like:

SELECT 'line 1
line 2
line 3'

or

SELECT 'line 1' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + 'line 2' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + 'line 3'

With embedded CRLF, the display in the grid appears to replace them with spaces (I guess so that they will display all the data).

The problem is that if I am code-generating a script, I cannot simply cut and paste this. I have to convert the code to open a cursor and print the relevant columns so that I can copy and paste them from the text results.

Is there any simpler workaround to preserve the CRLF in a copy/paste operation from the results grid?

The reason that the grid is helpful is that I am currently generating a number of scripts for the same object in different columns - a bcp out in one column, an xml format file in another, a table create script in another, etc...

Upvotes: 99

Views: 37979

Answers (5)

Joe Shakely
Joe Shakely

Reputation: 913

Answering this for myself because I can never remember where this is (also you need to quit SSMS and re-open for it to take effect):

enter image description here

Upvotes: 18

Simon_Weaver
Simon_Weaver

Reputation: 145890

Warning: There's definitely some kind of bug still with this feature.

First of all, I haven't touched the option in months and have recently rebooted.

I had a query with several columns, one of which contained customer feedback (with linefeeds). When I pasted the results into Google Docs / Excel the feedback went into one line (as I wanted).

I then copied the query to another file and ran it again. This time the results contained line breaks!

So either there is a very odd bug, or some secret shortcut that changes the setting for the current window. Interested if anyone else sees this behavior.

Upvotes: 2

Charles Gagnon
Charles Gagnon

Reputation: 4489

This issue has been fixed in SSMS 16.5 build 13.0.16000.28 with the addition of an option to preserve CR/LF on copy/save (more details) (Connect bug).

  1. Tools > Options
  2. Expand Query Results > SQL Server > Results to Grid
  3. Tick Retain CR/LF on copy or save
  4. Restart SSMS

This will cause CR, LF, and CRLF to be treated as newlines when you copy a cell.

Upvotes: 183

adolf garlic
adolf garlic

Reputation: 3096

One thing you can do is send results to a file, then use an editor capable of watching a file for changes which has superior capabilities for understanding the output.

Upvotes: -5

KM.
KM.

Reputation: 103579

it is a hack, but try this:

wrap your result set in a REPLACE (.....,CHAR(13)+CHAR(10),CHAR(182)) to preserve the line breaks, you can then replace them back

SELECT 
    REPLACE ('line 1' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)+ 'line 2' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + 'line 3'
            ,CHAR(13)+CHAR(10),CHAR(182)
            )

OUTPUT:

----------------------
line 1¶line 2¶line 3

(1 row(s) affected)

replace them back in SQL:

select replace('line 1¶line 2¶line 3',CHAR(182),CHAR(13)+CHAR(10))

output:

-------------------
line 1
line 2
line 3

(1 row(s) affected)

or in a good text editor.

Upvotes: -3

Related Questions