Convert a SQL query result table to an HTML table for email

Question

I am running a SQL query that returns a table of results. I want to send the table in an email using dbo.sp_send_dbMail.

Is there a straightforward way within SQL to turn a table into an HTML table? Currently, I'm manually constructing it using COALESCE and putting the results into a varchar that I use as the emailBody.

Is there a better way to do this?

Answer 1

I made a dynamic proc which turns any random query into an HTML table, so you don't have to hardcode columns like in the other responses.

-- Description: Turns a query into a formatted HTML table. Useful for emails. 
-- Any ORDER BY clause needs to be passed in the separate ORDER BY parameter.
-- =============================================
CREATE PROC [dbo].[spQueryToHtmlTable] 
(
  @query nvarchar(MAX), --A query to turn into HTML format. It should not include an ORDER BY clause.
  @orderBy nvarchar(MAX) = NULL, --An optional ORDER BY clause. It should contain the words 'ORDER BY'.
  @html nvarchar(MAX) = NULL OUTPUT --The HTML output of the procedure.
)
AS
BEGIN   
  SET NOCOUNT ON;

  IF @orderBy IS NULL BEGIN
    SET @orderBy = ''  
  END

  SET @orderBy = REPLACE(@orderBy, '''', '''''');

  DECLARE @realQuery nvarchar(MAX) = '
    DECLARE @headerRow nvarchar(MAX);
    DECLARE @cols nvarchar(MAX);    

    SELECT * INTO #dynSql FROM (' + @query + ') sub;

    SELECT @cols = COALESCE(@cols + '', '''''''', '', '''') + ''['' + name + ''] AS ''''td''''''
    FROM tempdb.sys.columns 
    WHERE object_id = object_id(''tempdb..#dynSql'')
    ORDER BY column_id;

    SET @cols = ''SET @html = CAST(( SELECT '' + @cols + '' FROM #dynSql ' + @orderBy + ' FOR XML PATH(''''tr''''), ELEMENTS XSINIL) AS nvarchar(max))''    

    EXEC sys.sp_executesql @cols, N''@html nvarchar(MAX) OUTPUT'', @html=@html OUTPUT

    SELECT @headerRow = COALESCE(@headerRow + '''', '''') + ''<th>'' + name + ''</th>'' 
    FROM tempdb.sys.columns 
    WHERE object_id = object_id(''tempdb..#dynSql'')
    ORDER BY column_id;

    SET @headerRow = ''<tr>'' + @headerRow + ''</tr>'';

    SET @html = ''<table border="1">'' + @headerRow + @html + ''</table>'';    
    ';

  EXEC sys.sp_executesql @realQuery, N'@html nvarchar(MAX) OUTPUT', @html=@html OUTPUT
END
GO

Usage:

DECLARE @html nvarchar(MAX);
EXEC spQueryToHtmlTable @html = @html OUTPUT,  @query = N'SELECT * FROM dbo.People', @orderBy = N'ORDER BY FirstName';

EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail
    @profile_name = 'Foo',
    @recipients = '[email protected];',
    @subject = 'HTML email',
    @body = @html,
    @body_format = 'HTML',
    @query_no_truncate = 1,
    @attach_query_result_as_file = 0;

Related: Here is similar code to turn any arbitrary query into a CSV string.