Include headers when using SELECT INTO OUTFILE?

Is it possible to include the headers somehow when using the MySQL INTO OUTFILE?

Solution 1:

You'd have to hard code those headers yourself. Something like:

SELECT 'ColName1', 'ColName2', 'ColName3'
UNION ALL
SELECT ColName1, ColName2, ColName3
    FROM YourTable
    INTO OUTFILE '/path/outfile'

Solution 2:

The solution provided by Joe Steanelli works, but making a list of columns is inconvenient when dozens or hundreds of columns are involved. Here's how to get column list of table my_table in my_schema.

-- override GROUP_CONCAT limit of 1024 characters to avoid a truncated result
set session group_concat_max_len = 1000000;

select GROUP_CONCAT(CONCAT("'",COLUMN_NAME,"'"))
from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'my_table'
AND TABLE_SCHEMA = 'my_schema'
order BY ORDINAL_POSITION

Now you can copy & paste the resulting row as first statement in Joe's method.

Solution 3:

For complex select with ORDER BY I use the following:

SELECT * FROM (
    SELECT 'Column name #1', 'Column name #2', 'Column name ##'
    UNION ALL
    (
        // complex SELECT statement with WHERE, ORDER BY, GROUP BY etc.
    )
) resulting_set
INTO OUTFILE '/path/to/file';

Solution 4:

This will alow you to have ordered columns and/or a limit

SELECT 'ColName1', 'ColName2', 'ColName3'
UNION ALL
SELECT * from (SELECT ColName1, ColName2, ColName3
    FROM YourTable order by ColName1 limit 3) a
    INTO OUTFILE '/path/outfile';