User's Guide Part VI. SQL Anywhere Reference Chapter 43. Watcom-SQL StatementsTo export data from a database table into an external ascii-format file.
UNLOAD [ FROM ] TABLE [ owner ].table-name
... TO 'filename-string'
... [ FORMAT 'ascii'] [ DELIMITED BY string ]
... [ QUOTES ON | OFF ] [ ESCAPES ON | OFF ]
... [ ORDER ON | OFF ]
... [ ESCAPE CHARACTER character ]
Anywhere.
Must have SELECT permission on the table.
None.
The UNLOAD TABLE statement allows efficient mass exporting from a database table into an ascii file. UNLOAD TABLE is more efficient than the ISQL statement OUTPUT and can be called from any client application.
UNLOAD TABLE places an exclusive lock on the whole table.
For descriptions of the FORMAT, DELIMITED BY, and ESCAPE CHARACTER options, see "LOAD TABLE statement". The other options are as follows:
QUOTES option With QUOTES turned on (the default), single quotes are placed around all exported strings.
ESCAPES option With ESCAPES on (the default), backslash-character combinations are used to identify special characters where necessary on export.
ORDER option With ORDER on (the default) the data is exported ordered by primary key values. With ORDER off, the data is exported in the same order you see when selecting from the table without an ORDER BY clause.
Exporting is slower with ORDER on. However, reloading using the LOAD TABLE statement is quicker because of the simplicity of the indexing step.